18 Tails
by toofine89
Summary: Naruto had a twin at birth who was used in the sealing process. In the fight with Mizuki she is released and they are both changed forever. Starts a tad slow, but we'll see where it goes. rated for language and possible explicit material down the line. Now ended as incomplete and being rewritten in my story 19 Tails.
1. Chapter 1

**First ever story. Anyways, review and share with friends. Criticism is okay and advice is loved. Hate mail is not desirable. Finally I guess I should say I own nothing.**

"What are we going to name them, Minato?" asked the tired red head nearly asleep on the hospital bed.

"How about after the land of Whirlpool, Kushina?" asked her husband, his sapphire eyes looking on his wife with a curious mixture of love and pure exhaustion. The last nine months of his life had been tiring, but, after the next nine minutes, he would be able to take a long needed rest.

Kushina stared at her family, all three with sunshine hair eyes of the deepest blue. Raising her hand to her newborn little boy's head and rubbing the singular tuft of hair on his head she said, "Naruto," and the boy began to laugh. She moved her hand to her beautiful baby girl's cheek and said, "Naruko," while the girl grabbed her hand and began to suck on a finger. "MInato, do what you must, and I'll be here for them." She faded into a fitful sleep.

Minato took her hand and held it tight, for the final time, before he gently kissed his wife once on the lips. He left the building and, with tears raining from his sky blue eyes, he summoned a humongous toad. "Let's do this, Gamabunta." He jumped to the amphibian's back, and the boss toad jumped toward the danger at hand, a beautiful and merciless form of nature, a golden-red nine tailed fox of a massive size. It was unfortunate that no one saw a man with a black cloak and a single rotating eye leave the room with a bloody kunai, leaving Kushina with a slit throat and the attending nurse with much less.

As the toad jumped overhead, shinobi stopped fighting to watch their leader, Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage, enter battle. They expected to see his famous justsu, either a rasengan or the legendary hiraishin. Instead all they saw was a burst of red and blue energy and a smoke screen as the toad left. When the smoke cleared, all that remained was a single blond baby boy. The boy wept, for he no longer had the warmth of his mother, or even the touch of his father. Whisker marks appeared on his cheeks, one line at a time, and a red light shined through the blanket where his belly lay. As the light dimmed and disappeared, the boy turned to sleep.

"Jiraiya, what do you mean?" asked Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage.

"I'll say it again. There are three souls here, and one seems to be slowly shrinking. However, it will take years for it to be absorbed. My best guess is that two of the souls belong to Naruto and his sister, and the third is the fox itself. Over time, the Namikaze souls should absorb the Kyubbi's power and knowledge. If anything, due to the Kyubbi's steady regeneration of chakra, they should both absorb at least nine tails worth of chakra." The white haired men looked into a crib at Naruto, the boy moving restlessly, even in his sleep. Old eyes turned to look at older eyes and they contemplated what had happened.

"How can Naruko's soul absorb chakra without a body?" pondered the newly reinstated Sandaime.

Jiraiya had no answer, and there was silence for a moment. "Now what do we do about the boy? I can't bring him with me. He would ruin all cover I may have with my spy network and put his life in danger," said the Sannin.

"Well, I can't adopt him either. It would draw too much suspicion on him. We can't have him used as a weapon or targeted as a threat. I suppose all we can do now is to put him in the orphanage and look out for him for as best as we can."

"Do you even know what you're saying?" Jiraiya asked, giving Sarutobi an incredulous look. "The first thing those civilians did when they saw him was try to 'kill the demon.'"

"You're right, Jiraiya, but what else can we do? We'll call him Uzumaki, after his mother, so at least Iwa doesn't target him. Other than that, well, only Kami knows." Both men sighed at looked at the infant, innocent of trouble, yet, seemingly conscious of it as he held his hand out to the world, trying to block it. He cried softly, even in his sleep.

"I'm going to kill you!" shouted the now enraged Naruto. This thirteen year-old stood over the body of his teacher Iruka, acting as the last boundary between him and the traitorous Mizuki.

"Just try it demon! I'm going to kill you and be considered a hero by Konoha for your death and my new employer for the scroll!"

Naruto felt a new sensation gather around him. His teeth lengthened, whiskers set deeper, and eyes slitted and turned a deep red with only a gleam of blue shining through. An armor of red chakra surrounded his body and a single red tail formed from the chakra behind him. He crossed his fingers and growled, in a feral voice, "Kagebunshin." Every visible speck of land was covered in Naruto's and, as Iruka watched on, Mizuki was beaten within an inch of his life. Naruto stood over his once sensei with newly formed claws and, as he almost brought down his hand, Iruka yelled out to him. One of Naruto's clones came over to him and held his arm back. They glanced in each other's eyes and the red chakra dissipated, and although the fangs receded a tad as did the claws, they were now prominent than before. Instead, Naruto merely knocked Mizuki out with a back hand before walking over to Iruka.

The still injured Iruka stumbled to his feet and said, "Naruto, thank you. Now close your eyes." Naruto did so and felt something being attached to his head. "You can open them now. You are now an official ninja of Konoha!"

Naruto opened his eyes, reached up, and felt the hitai-ate's cold metal. He smiled, as did his clone. "Thanks Iruka-sensei!"

"You're welcome Naruto. You deserved it after that. Now, let's go to the Hokage's office and explain this mess. First, though, release the clone."

Naruto closed his eyes, crossed his fingers, and tried to release the technique, only to discover it was already canceled. Frustrated with seeing the "clone" still there, he tried again, this time putting all of his remaining chakra into the effort. As he strained, the sky above flashed and thundered until lightning struck the clearing in which they stood.

Iruka looked away from the light, and looked back, fearing the worst for his former student. Instead he saw something extremely unexpected. "What the hell is this?" he wondered aloud.

Now in the clearing stood three people. Iruka was unchanged, but Naruto was different. There were now nine tails that waved from his body, the body itself appearing roughly sixteen and without any of Naruto's previous baby fat. His hair was only a tad longer than before, but both the tips of blond hair and blond tails were now the deepest red and Naruto released a new feel. It wasn't a dangerous or malevolent feel, but one of raw power. Across the clearing stood a figure who released a similar feel. This version of Naruto had long blond hair with small red highlights down it's length. It also had nine tails with similar highlights. Finally, however, this Naruto had certain... distinguishing characteristics. Her bust was large, her face was certainly attractive, and her proportions were perfect.

"Hello," spoke the girl and Naruto's foxlike ears perked upwards at the soft voice. 'Wait, since when did I have pointed ears?' he thought. In shock, he looked at his new body. He appreciated the muscle, but was confused by the tails and, apparently, fox ears. He sighed deeply, breathing in through his nose, and noticed he could smell the faintest traces of animals that had passed by. His eyes, despite the dark of the night, could see every detail of the girl, and he heard the quietest rustlings of some small animal in a tree on the other side of the clearing. Instinctively, he knew, almost as if he could imagine its outline, that it was a squirrel and her family, settling down for the night. He looked at his female version. She looked very much like his Sexy no Jutsu form, even including the long pigtails. He reached his hand behind his head to ask a question as he normally did, but found a tail had already subconsciously done so.

"Don't ask questions right now, Naruto. We need to talk to the old man fast."

Both Naruto and Iruka were shocked to hear the name that only Naruto used for the Hokage. They nodded dumbly and Iruka put a hand on each of their shoulders and, with the last of his chakra, shunshined to the Hokage tower.

**** Anyways, review and share with friends. Criticism is okay and advice is loved. Hate mail is not desirable. Finally I guess I should say I own nothing.**  
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	2. A little explanation

** Anyways, review and share with friends. Criticism is okay and advice is loved. Hate mail is not desirable. Finally I guess I should say I own nothing.**

A little explanation

The Hokage was only a little startled when three people appeared in his office in a swirl of leaves. He saw what appeared to be Naruto and what might be his Sexy no Jutsu. Iruka stood at attention, now being recognized for the first time, and asked, "Permission to leave for medical attention?" in a rather weak voice. "The girl saw what happened and knows what happened better than I."

The Hokage nodded dumbly, summoning an Anbu to help Iruka to hospital. When the door shut, he turned to the two still in his office. They came out from hiding, fearing being seen as they were. They looked at each other, and the girl hit a pressure point on Naruto that knocked him out. She carried him to a couch for guests, and turned back to the Hokage. His only response was a questioning gaze and initiating a privacy jutsu.

"Hello, Naruko. I must say, I was wondering what would become of your soul inside of Naruto. Do you mind telling me what happened?"

"Not at all." The girl smiled a winning smile. "It's gone and twice as strong." The Hokage's mouth fell to the floor at the thought of a doubly strong Kyubbi. "But we are its strength. In that seal, with the Kyubbi's help, I focused his chakra in my and my brother's souls. About a month ago, I finished. Now the Kyubbi has no chakra, and we are both the next nine tailed demons. The Kyubbi said that Naruto and I have, due to my time in him, become one. We share thoughts and emotions, and know the deepest desires of each other's hearts. We may be siblings, but I am not in the same body I once had so, as is necessary for Naruto and I to live, we can be mates." She stopped as if that explained everything.

The Hokage, attempting to understand, still had questions. "How did you get your body, what do you mean by the new nine tailed demons, how do you know so much about this, what does mate mean, and what is left of the Kyubbi?" He just realized how lost he truly was. "One second, Naruko." He reached over to his intercom and paged his secretary. "Hold all business and tell the ninja sent after Naruto to go home. Also, have Inoichi come with all possible speed."

Naruko, who had taken the time to yawn a cute, high-pitched yawn, now started to talk again. "Well, I got my body when he used the demon chakra and accidentally pulled on my chakra as well. He made me into one of his kagebunshins and my excess chakra solidified the body, changing into this form when he called on his demonic chakra again. It made us physically what we were mentally."

The Hokage nodded and she took it as a sign to continue. "Now, as for the new nine tailed demons, we have Kyubbi's chakra, our own chakra, and now that I'm gone from his body, our minds will not fight as we have been doing, but we will both become highly intelligent and will be able to work on control. It was hard for him when he had to control three of us. Oh, and Kyubbi said we were like his kits. He wants us to summon a human form of him periodically to train us in the nine tailed chakra. All that is left is her human form, though it appears that she still has the tile King of Demons. Between her explanations and being able to feel Naruto's thoughts and emotions, I learned what I know."

At this point, the Hokage was starting to understand Naruto's previous problems. "Finally, Naruto is mine and I am his. We have been together since we have been born, and our emotions and thoughts have constantly met as I have been in his body. Our minds fought, but also relied on each other and still do. We can talk without saying words by just thinking and, most likely, will die if the other one of us does." Now the girl turned as red as the highlights in her hair. "We need each other for as long as we live and, if Kyubbi's right, we will never age past our mid twenties. We're stuck with each other until death do us part, and even then we might follow each other. There's a little more to it, but I don't want to talk about it until it happens." She stopped blushing and started lovingly caressing Naruto's face, her finger tracing his whiskers and making him purr. She turned red all over again and, suddenly, the door flew open and a worried looking Inoichi entered the room.

"What's wrong, Hokage-sama?" asked the middle-aged ninja not even noticing the teens in the room.

"I need you to enter Naruko-san's mind and see if she is telling me the truth."

"About what, Hokage-sama, and who is this?" asked the man.

"Just let me fall asleep so you can talk to my brother and I at the same time. He'll tell you a story while you wait," said Naruko, yawning at the end and curling up with Naruto.

The Hokage sighed and explained the story of the young kitunes.

An hour later an extremely tired Inoichi exited the minds of two young children, breathing heavily. "What the fuck have you been doing?" He yelled at the Hokage. "Two extremely innocent minds have nearly been destroyed by your negligence! Not only has he been attacked thousands of times, but has also tried to kill himself, only for the wounds to heal too quickly. He even once jumped from the top of the Hokage monument because he couldn't take the pain but didn't want to hurt anyone in his anger. You almost lost two of the most loyal ninja I have ever had the pleasure and pain of evaluating. She's right, by the way. The Kyubbi is harmless, and the children have his power, though they barely know how to tap it. It seems he can be summoned and, once they gain his respect, he may give them a kitsune summoning contract. Next, there will be a change in Naruto's behavior. He will still be happy go lucky, but he will not hide his emotions as well. It was Naruko who had helped calm his anger and ease his sorrow. Without her inside of him, he may be more impulsive. Likewise, she still seems like she could calm him."

"Thank you Inoichi."

"I'm not done sir." He spat out the word sir with disgust. "If there is no improvement in their lives, the Yamanaka clan will leave and bring them with us. They have potential to be angels or demons and I will not let you corrupt their currently pure souls. Good night, Hokage-_sama_." He left the room in a shunshin.

The Hokage sighed and started to figure out what he could do with the children. He got an idea and started to fill out the paperwork. The endless damn paperwork. He sighed and looked at the teens, holding hands in their sleep. He smiled, but then a single tear fell as he saw Naruto shudder in his sleep. He would make amends for them. He wiped his tear away and called for Jiraiya and an Anbu named Tenzo...

"Yes, Hokage-sama?" said Tenzo as he stepped through the door.

"First off, your name for this mission and the foreseeable future will be Yamato. Secondly, we must wait on Jiraiya to hear how much he can help. You will receive A-rank pay until your mission is complete," said the Hokage.

"And what will I receive sensei?" asked a red cloaked white haired man who had just come in through the window.

"How about a chance to watch over both of your godchildren who are also, it seems, your grandchildren and witness the rise of a legend?" Sarutobi smirked, knowing he would have gotten the Toad Sannin's attention.

"How the hell could they be my grandchildren? I never had a child," asked the incredulous Jiraiya.

"Of course you did. When Orochimaru left, I'm sure you remember how you comforted Tsunade that night. Well, I'm not sure if you thought you used protection or if you simply don't remember how much you comforted her, but nine months later she delivered. She was given the wrong medical records and told she miscarried, but in reality her son waited and was never picked up. He went to the orphanage and had a hard life, but he made a name for himself."

Jiraiya was shocked, for he knew of only one blond child who fit this description. "Are you trying to tell me," he slowly asked, "that I was the father, sensei, and spy for the same man?"

"Yes, Jiraiya," said Yamato, who had pieced together the story. "Minato was your son, student, and Hokage."

"And," Jiraiya asked, finally letting his curiosity on the subject breach the surface, "what is our local demon tamer doing here?"

Yamato smiled at the name. His bloodline, you see, was the legendary Mokuton of the Shodaime Hokage. Although he had never needed to restrain a demon, it was said that his bloodline was capable of holding back several tails of strength.

"He is here to keep our local angels out of trouble. You see, Naruto and, apparently Naruko, have become the new nine tailed foxes and need teachers that are able to hold up to the demand of controlling this energy. You can see some of the changes if you merely look at them on the couch." Naruto and Naruko each had curled tails around the other protectively. "Therefore, I would wish for their grandfather, a figure they may respect, and a "demon tamer," one who might be able to curb an excess of their power, to teach them. Do you accept?"

Both men looked at the teens. Naruko had pulled close to Naruto, and looked like she would never let go. "Yes," both men said simultaneously. "But," Jiraiya said, "first you must tell us how Naruko returned and how this change took place." The Hokage sighed. This would be a long night of explanation.

** Anyways, review and share with friends. Criticism is okay and advice is loved. Hate mail is not desirable. Finally I guess I should say I own nothing.**


	3. Teams

**Well, here's my edit. Only fixed little things, made the kiss less intense, put in section breaks like I ought to do with the other chapters.**

**Anyways, review and share with friends. Criticism is okay and advice is loved. Hate mail is not desirable. Finally I guess I should say I own nothing.**

Teams

The Namikaze siblings woke up, still on the Hokage's couch, at the same time. Sapphire stared into sapphire as sunshine tangled with sunshine. "I'm glad your back Naruko-hime." It would have sounded weird to anyone else that he knew who she was, but last night he had learned almost everything when Inoichi had entered their linked minds.

Naruko reached over and kissed his cheek, whispering, "I've always been here Naruto-kun. I just needed to wait for you to call me." They stayed silent for a moment, just feeling each other's warmth before they heard the door the Hokage's office open. In walked a man in a jounin uniform.

"Hello Naruto, Naruko. I'm Yamato and will be your escort to the academy for team assignments today."

"But I'm not even a ninja," said Naruko.

"Between Inoichi's mental evaluation and your physical capabilities as seen by Iruka and sensed by the Hokage, you are both genin of Konoha. I have appropriate clothing for the both of you, as well as hitai-ates. Please change and meet me outside this room when you are ready to go. Please use some speed as we let you sleep in." The strange man left the room, leaving two black outfits.

They stayed still for a moment, not wanting to leave the warmth of eighteen tails, and then Naruto realized what had just been said. He jumped up and off the couch, nearly knocking his sister to the ground, and yelled "Clothes?" and, "They're actually not completely orange? Hell yes!" Naruto had always hated, and by extension Naruko did too, that they would only be sold orange. It's not that he didn't like orange, but he didn't think such a bright color was the best for a ninja. It was almost like people wanted him to be easily spotted if he was ever on a mission. He had by now turned around to his sister and saw she was still trying to wake up. "Sorry 'bout that," he said, his hand behind his head with a goofy smile on his face.

Naruko yawned, stood up with a fluid grace and slowly stretched. "No problem," she said calmly as she walked over to the clothes, a smile on her face as well. They each looked at the clothes and found it to their liking. Naruto's was a black Anbu style with extra scroll and weapon holders built in. It came with black boots and gloves as did Naruko's, but hers was a more fitted top for her sixteen year old body and a knee length skirt with scroll holsters that strapped to her legs and a belt with weapon holsters in it. Both had orange highlights that were, while not quite subtle, not shocking like Naruto's old clothes were. They both started to change, not even bothering to be modest. After all, they just felt right together.

Naruto looked over at Naruko and blushed just a little at seeing her supple breasts before she put a bra on. Sensing the emotions running through his head, she looked towards him as he looked away. She too blushed, seeing the lean abs and muscular chest. 'He really is hot,' Naruko thought. Naruto heard it and thought, 'That's the first time anyone's ever said that.'

Naruko gasped as she heard his thought as well. They weren't supposed to be able to talk like this until they were nearly mates. 'Then again, aren't we mates in all but marking each other?' she wondered. And then, aloud, "Naruto, I think I need to tell you something."

"What is it hime?" asked the goofy blond as he pulled his shirt down over his head.

"We, after all this time together, are, well..." she trailed off.

"What's wrong? We've known each other since day one." He walked over and grabbed her small hands in his, and she blushed a little. "I feel like can share anything with you." He looked into her eyes and she saw the sincerity therein. "You can trust me."

"We are mates. We are made for each other and connected even when we're apart." Now she talked from mind to mind. 'We can even talk like this.'

'And I'm fine with that,' he thought back, hardly even shocked because it felt natural to do. 'It feels right,' he thought to her as he rubbed his nose against hers. He let go of one hand, caught a stray hair, and tucked it behind her ear. "I couldn't ask for more."

Naruko was now a brighter shade of red than before as she gave her mate a peck on the lips before turning around and finishing changing. She came over to where he was waiting, took his hand in hers, and walked through the door. They started to walk with Yamato to the academy. The looks they received as they walked through town were extremely malevolent. The people may have always called Naruto a fox, but now it seemed his appearance proved them right.

The sounds of, "Now the demon is on the outside too," and, "Demon bitch," flew after the teens. Yamato grimaced at the killing intent the civilians let out and Naruto bared his teeth and growled at them when he heard the comments directed at Naruko, surprising Yamato. He saw Naruko drop the hand she was holding and instead lean on Naruto as they walked, partially to calm him and partially out of fear. Yamato guessed they knew each other better than he had thought as she had calmed Naruto down quickly.

By the time they were two streets from the academy, there was a small mob of people that blocked the road in front of them. One man stepped forward and said, "Sir, I request you step aside. There seem to be two demons following you and we wish to cleanse our humble village."

Yamato looked around as if for the demons mentioned, "I only see two promising young ninja here. Now, leave before there are consequences."

"You don't seem to understand your situation," said a second man who had appeared with a group behind the trio. The first group seemed to be unarmed, but this group had everything from knives to spades. "We are here to kill the demon," causing Naruko to hold Naruto tighter, "and that whore that's with him." At this Naruto let loose what could only be described as roar, held back only by Naruko. All the civilians paused in fear and Yamato took the chance.

"Mokuton: Growth," was all the man said as he flashed through several signs and hit the ground with an open palm. Vines and branches from nearby trees started to tie down their adversaries and Yamato knocked out the closest man, the one who had talked first. He unfortunately failed to see one man who had approached from a side alley.

The man raised a butcher's knife and jumped from hiding, aiming straight at Naruko. Naruto caught the attacker's wrist with two of his tails and, with a quick jerk, snapped it. The man rolled on the ground in pain while Yamato summoned Anbu. "Take them to Ibiki," said the retired Anbu captain. "Make sure you give _special treatment_ to these three," he added while pointing towards the spokesmen and the man who had attacked, the words special treatment sending a chill down the teens' spines. He turned back to the Namikazes and gave a small, though slightly grim smile. "Let's continue on."

They reached the academy building and Naruto reached for the door, only to stop in fear of what his class might do to the new him and his mate. After all, he had just been assaulted by about thirty men. Naruko smiled, thinking of Shikamaru, Choji, and Naruto's other friends. Naruto's heart, feeling her hope for friends, lightened. He would deal with what came. Trying to lighten the mood in general he looked at her and remembered what she had said in the room. 'So, I look hot, do I?' he thought to her, getting her to give a blush that could put Hinata to shame. She had forgotten he heard her think that.

As her blush reached its deepest red Naruto opened the door and gestured with his hand saying, "Ladies first."

She walked in, tails all in a bunch due to her embarrassment, and Naruto followed while Yamato stayed outside. Naruto causally looked around the room as he entered. He saw one black haired boy he didn't know doodling in the corner, but the rest of the class was shocked at Naruto's new look. Between clothes, physical body, and new fox-like characteristics, they barely recognized him. The boys, however, stared slack-jawed at the beautiful girl that Naruto led by the hand to a seat near the back. Sure, the tails and ears were weird, but, because of the rest of the package, they didn't mind in the slightest. Naruko blushed when she smelled the hormones the boys were inadvertently letting off and Naruto growled defensively at the smell.

Kiba, also the person releasing the most prominent hormones, was the first to break his stupor and approach the couple. "Hey dead last, you know only people who passed their test are supposed to be here," and then, towards Naruko, "and you, babe, could do much better than blondy here."

Naruto responded, "Kiba, both Naruko and I have our hitai-ates. We have both become ninja." He stood in front of Naruko who was still sitting down. His tails were rigid, forming a solid wall between the dog boy and the kitsune girl, and he emitted a fairly constant quiet growl.

Naruko brushed his tails aside, reached around Naruto and, while running her fingers through his soft blonde hair, kissed him full on the lips. He kissed her back and pulled her close with one arm when she pulled away from his lips. "As you can see, Kiba, Naruto is certainly man enough for me."

Kiba glared at her and then, too shocked that Naruto could get a girl to focus on it, changed the subject. "And what happened to you? You got tall and grew tails and fox ears. That doesn't happen overnight."

In their heads both Namikazes laughed to each other about that. "Well Kiba," Naruto finally said, "once your balls drop and you reach puberty, you might understand."

Kiba growled at Naruto and was about to retort when Iruka, who must have appeared during the conversation, started yelling at students to sit. The canine boy felt something strong emanating from Naruto and knew instinctively that there was a power struggle occurring. He would get the upper hand if he could. Kiba opened his mouth for one last parting remark anyways, but Iruka singled him out. "Kiba, stop harassing Naruto and Naruko and sit down. Sheesh, even Akamaru can do that." The dog boy growled and left the kitsunes alone, only to notice Akamaru had actually already sat down, relaxing on Naruto's lap. He leered at Naruto, who was now softly petting the small dog, while Iruka spoke.

"Congratulations," said the scar faced and still bandaged chunin. "You have all passed the academy's final test to become ninja. From this day forward, you will be expected to put the needs of the village in front of your personal needs. You are not children any more, or even teenagers, but full grown adults. You are old enough to fight, old enough to die, old enough to drink, and old enough to screw as the saying goes. I will now break you into your genin teams and your jounin instructors will arrive soon. They will further explain your duties as ninja and help you become genin the village can be proud of."

Iruka continued on with his speech about responsibilities and the Will of Fire. All went as usual until team seven was called. "Team seven will be a combat squad with Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Sai. Your jounin sensei will be Hatake Kakashi." Of course, Sakura went apeshit, claiming that her love was justified, and Sai walked over to where Sakura and the Uchiha sat. "Hi needle dick and flat chest." He sat down, ignoring the flabbergasted look on Sakura's face and the vaguely shocked - odd that he could show emotion - look on Sasuke's face.

Not wanting a confrontation to start, Iruka quickly continued on while Sai sat down. Eventually he reached team twelve. "Team twelve will be a special combat squad with Naruto and Naruko Uzumaki. When a third suitable member is found, they will join you. Your instructors will be special jounin Yamato and sannin Jiraiya. It says here you will also have a third sensei that will help from time to time."

Many of the guys sighed that they didn't have Naruko in their team, and two or three girls even sighed that they didn't have the new Naruto. He was hotter, more masculine, and the tails and ears were just amazingly cute.

Sakura raised her hand and, when called on, asked, "Why do the dead last and his girlfriend get three senseis, one a sannin, while the rest of us only have one jounin?"

Sasuke, finally over Sai's comment, spoke up as well. "Yes, why do I, the last loyal Uchiha, only get one sensei?"

Iruka shrugged. "If you really want to know, then ask Naruto or the Hokage. I don't have the knowledge to tell you, and I wouldn't tell you if I did. You need to learn some basic respect before I would respect your request. However, I believe you will appreciate your sensei." He turned from the indignant Uchiha and back to the rest of the class. "Be back here at one to meet your senseis. Dismissed."

The group started to leave and Akamaru ran off after Kiba when Naruto woke up the sleeping dog. Naruto and Naruko walked hand in hand until Naruko spoke. "There's something I really want to try. I've always known you loved it, but now I want to try Ichiraku."

Naruto smiled and led the way, Yamato watching from a discreet distance.

They had walked slowly and been joined by Choji, Shino, and Shikamaru. They reached the ramen stand and Naruto ordered ten bowls of miso and ten of the day's special for Naruko and himself. The others were a little more conservative, Choji ordering six while Shino and Shikamaru only ordered two.

They made pleasant conversation for a while, Naruto introducing them all, but, inside, Shino and Shikamaru really wanted answers. Unfortunately, asking was too troublesome for Shikamaru so that duty fell to Shino. After talking about their teammates, Shino finally asked.

"So what happened, where did Naruko come from, and why does she look so close to your Sexy no Jutsu?"

Choji stopped eating, noodles hanging out of his mouth, and stared wide eyed at Naruto and Naruko. That's what had been bugging him. He slurped up the noodle and then had his say. "Yeah," he said eagerly, "since when did you stop wearing all that orange Naruto?"

Everyone else, Teuchi and Ayame included, sweat dropped. Ayame, however, cared for Naruto like he was a brother and she also enjoyed gossip so she pleaded, "Come on Naruto, tell us."

The kitsunes looked at each other and the others could have sworn they were talking without saying anything. In fact they were. Naruto was hesitant but, since it was already known both that they were a couple and their tails were in plain sight, they decided to tell them most of the truth.

After swearing their audience to secrecy Naruto told of the sealing, Mizuki's traitorous actions, the release of his mate, and the fact that they were destined to be together. Apparently, Naruko's soul had been needed to monitor and start the process of absorbing the Kyubbi's chakra and the only reason that Naruto had stumbled across the Sexy no Jutsu was because he was unknowingly imitating Naruko. Throughout the tale, Ayame was subconsciously stroking his tails. By the time they had finished talking, the boys and ramen cooks were just as confused, though more well informed, than they had been before lunch had started.

Thirty bowls of ramen and sixty minutes after they had been dismissed, they were back in the academy. Kiba decided to try his luck one last time. "So, Naruko, you're new around here, right?"

Naruko looked at Naruto who was talking with Hinata. "I guess you could say that."

Kiba smiled and said, "I'd be glad to show you around some time, take you to dinner."

Naruko giggled at the dog boy who just didn't realize he didn't stand a chance. "Maybe sometime. But let's just be friends." She stuck out her hand and he took it in his but, instead of shaking it, used it to pull her in for a kiss.

Naruto had been talking to Hinata. "I understand you like me, but I already have someone, and so do you."

"But I don't love him," she responded, the heartbreak causing her to not stutter.

"And you think you love me? Tell you what," he said, seeing what Kiba was doing. "I'll give you one kiss to see. Close your eyes." Hinata turned a bright red and did so, and slightly puckered her lips. As soon as Kiba was about to kiss Naruko, Naruto replaced himself with Kiba. Kiba kissed his betrothed, forcing in some tongue, and Naruto kissed Naruko passionately on the lips.

Hinata, still with eyes closed, said, "I think I really do love you. That was amazing," as she opened her eyes, "Kiba. Wait. What?"

Kiba, never expecting Hinata to return the kiss the way she did had made it deeper and found that she was a great kisser. He grabbed her hand gently and said, "Well, I'm not sure about love, but we'll see how it goes. After all, we are engaged." Hinata gripped his hand back and turned a deeper red. Maybe Kiba had hope after all.

Naruko, on the other hand, was still in a daze. Not only had her mate given her just a little tongue, but had also nibbled on her bottom lip while his hand lightly grazed her butt. Now she just stared into his eyes, feeling the desire for more and realizing she would not get it for now.

"What's wrong Naruko-hime? Feeling a little hot in here?" Naruto asked. Naruko, now remembering where they were, blushed slightly as well until everyone heard a smack, a thud, a little giggle and then the scratching of pen on paper.

**Anyways, review and share with friends. Criticism is okay and advice is loved. Hate mail is not desirable. Finally I guess I should say I own nothing.**


	4. Mates

**Anyways, review and share with friends. Criticism is okay and advice is loved. Hate mail is not desirable. Finally I guess I should say I own nothing.**

Mates

The class turned around to see an odd sight. A relatively young man with black hair was passed out on the floor with the imprint of a hand across his cheek and the stains of what seemed to be an anime nosebleed on his jounin vest. Next to him stood a twenty-something absolutely gorgeous girl with black hair and red eyes who was both blushing and severely ticked off, possibly at the man on the ground who it seemed she had knocked unconscious. To her left stood two more men. One was Yamato, looking on with a slight smirk, and one was Jiraiya. The toad sage had let out the giggle and was writing down what had happened in his notebook, possibly for future use.

The man sat up and looked at the woman apologetically. "Sorry." She promptly crossed her arms and looked away. Iruka sweatdropped at the actions of the fiances.

The chunin cleared his throat and said, "Well, anyways, your senseis are here. Teams 8, 10, and 12 are dismissed."

Kurenai Yuhi, still with a tad of anger in her voice, said, "Team 8, follow me." On second thought, it was more of a command. Shino and Kiba, sensing the man hating vibes coming off of her at the moment, decided making her wait was a bad decision and they, along with Hinata, hurried off after their graceful sensei.

Asuma Sarutobi stared after Kurenai long after she had left, only to say, as if he had forgotten, "I guess we should go, Team 10." He started slowly walking towards the door while a bum, a bowling ball, and a fangirl followed.

Jiraiya spoke up next. "Okay. Naruko, Naruto, I will be one of your senseis. Follow and we'll get to know each other." He turned and two blurs of black and orange appeared smiling and holding hands behind his back.

Sasuke, assuming the impressive looking Yamato was his sensei, asked, "So how will you help me get stronger?"

Yamato looked at the boy, disgust evident in his eyes, and said, "I am also one of their senseis. Knowing who yours is, you might want to just curl up and sleep for a while. Maybe he'll help you but, personally, I hope he will not." Upon hearing Sasuke growl, Yamato decided to help him sleep. A quick strongly focused blast of KI did the trick, knocking Sasuke out until Kakashi arrived. Little did Yamato know how priceless Sakura's face would be when Kakashi walked into the room, three hours late, and look around to see one boy sleeping, one drawing, and one girl staring obsessively at the dreamer. Her indignant face, turning as rosy as her wardrobe, when Kakashi turned and walk back out complaining that he thought he was supposed to meet a team of "ninja" he was going to train was a Kodak moment.

In the mean time, Team 12 had traveled to training ground 23 to introduce themselves and possibly meet their third sensei. This was a rather large training ground for, as their senseis explained, the chakra overload the kitsunes may accidentally release in sparring and practicing ninjustsu could potentially be extremely damaging to the average citizen.

They currently sat in a circle on the ground and were introducing themselves. "My name is Yamato. I enjoy strategy games, good conversation, and good sake. I dislike traitors and threats to the leaf. I have no special plans for the future. I was put on this team because I do not think badly of you and my bloodline, Kami forbid we should need it, may be able to restrain some of your demonic chakra if it were to be released uncontrolled."

The twins nodded, happy that they could be stopped if something were to go wrong with their new bodies. "I'm Naruto. I like Naruko, ramen, and pranks. I don't like perverts or people who judge without reason, especially since it's hurting Naruko too now. I want to be there for my precious people, but, after all the village has done, I'm not sure I still want to be Hokage."

The older ninja were saddened that Naruto's old vigor had gone, but maybe this was meant to be. Naruko decided it was her turn. "Well, my name's Naruko and I love Naruto-kun here. I also like my new friends I made today." Her smile was contagious, but now faded as she considered what she disliked. "I hate those who hurt Naruto and I. My dream is just to be there for Naruto and to free the woman who has treated me like a daughter, Kyuubi."

The men were a tad alarmed that the genin wanted to free Kyuubi, but they had heard from the Hokage that Kyuubi could be a good teacher and friend while relatively powerless. Jiraiya got ready. He stood up, used smoke bombs to set the mood, and started with his introduction speech. "I am a legend, a sage, a wise man, and a kick ass ninja. Every man wants to be me, and every woman wants to-" sensing something perverted was soon to come, the young foxes hit him over the head. "Oh, fine then. I'm Jiraiya. I write Icha Icha and am a sannin. I like women and love family. I miss my old teammates and friends I've lost. I hate traitors. My dream is to be reunited with my grandchildren and their grandmother, but it may not happen for a long time. I taught Naruto's father, so I know a little about how Naruto may train and fight best."

"You trained the Yondaime?" shouted out both twins.

"Yes. Wait. How do you know he was your father."

"Well, when she left I figured something out. I can, with Kyuubi's help, actually walk through my memories since day one in my sleep. I've told Naruko about it," he explained.

"Well, I guess that makes some small level of sense because she's been there that long. She may be the only sensei who knows you two more than I do, and we need to see if we can get her out to help train."

Naruto looks at Naruko who shrugs and says, "Hey, we might be connected, but she's in you, not me. Talk to her."

Naruto decided it sounded good so he closed his eyes and thought about the Kyubbi. He imagined a fox of monstrous size and hair in the shades of blinding fire. Instead, it slowly slipped into the picture of a rather attractive woman in her mid to late twenties. This woman was chained by the wrists to a wall in a dungeon, her long crimson hair managing to cover all the most private spots her nudity would have exposed. She looked up at Naruto as he found himself in front of her. Her flaming eyes caught him by surprise and he noticed her slight nails and claws.

"Hello, Naruto," she spoke. Her voice was calming like the last warming ember of a fire, but he felt that her anger would sound more like an inferno.

"Are you... you can't be..." trailed off the confused blond. Kyuubi, even when they had talked the night of the Mizuki incident, had always been in fox form in that gaudy cage. Now he saw a beautiful woman in chains of a delicate silver design that looked easy enough to snap, though they seemed to hold her tightly. "Kyuubi?"

"Yes, it's me. I assume you're here so I can help teach you?"

"Yes, and to free you. Naruko wants it, so I do too."

She smiled a small smile. "That's good, for only you, the jailer, can free me. All you need to do is touch where the chains attach to the walls."

Naruko walked behind her to where she pointed and saw little pins with the Uzumaki swirl on them. He reached to touch them and at the slightest contact, they sprung from their resting places. All but the silver manacles around Kyuubi's wrists disappeared in a flash of golden light, and the manacles now held a small Uzumaki swirl on them. Kyuubi, weak from confinement, fell forward and Naruto caught her and helped her to stand up. "Thank you, Naruto."

"Anything for Naruko, and that's what she wants," he explained.

"Well, regardless, thank you kit. Now here's what we're going to do..." she started whispering in his ear. At some point, his face turned red.

What's taking them so long? That was the thought on everyone's mind as Naruto was laying down, his head on his sister's lap. She stroked his hair, his whisker marks, his ears. The purr he gave when she gently ran her fingers over his foxlike features gave her shivers. And plus, the ears were too cute to pass up!

All of a sudden, he opened his eyes. One shown red and one blue. He, seemingly in a trance, performed a series of over one hundred seals before he released a massive surge of energy and, in a puff of smoke, a beautiful redhead in a red kimono appeared next to the Namikaze clan. Jiraiya was going crazy over her "features" and even Yamato was distracted by her. Naruto then sat upright, awake.

The woman placed her hands behind his head, pulled him close, and quickly started to give him a passionate kiss. The other three watched, two jealous of Naruto and one of the woman, as their tongues battled. Their tongues fought for dominance and, based off of the surprised look on her face, Naruto had won. Naruto then removed his face from hers, a small trail of saliva falling from their mouths. Both bit their thumbs and offered it to the other. Kyuubi slowly, sensually, sucked the few drops of blood from his finger as he held her thumb above his mouth and a single drop fell down his throat.

It seemed a blast of heat came from the woman and traveled toward Naruto. She now had two simple silver bracelets with the Uzumaki swirl on them and he, slowly, grew a new tail. A tenth tail that looked no different than the rest, but had a singular presence of authority about it, waved among the others.

Everyone stared as they realized something important had happened, but only Kyuubi had the courage to break the silence. "And now you are King," she simply stated before leaving consciousness and entering sleep, free and unchained for the first time in over a decade.

"Why the hell did she just kiss my mate?" suddenly yelled Naruko as she still tried to regain her composure.

Naruto gave a sheepish grin before he explained as best he could. You see, Kyuubi could only be freed from Naruto's body for one event: the coronation of a new Demon King. And Naruto had been the only candidate. The way a new Demon King was made was when the last King, a chosen demon who tied for having the most tails, submitted to a demon with as many tails as they had. And became their mate.

Kyuubi's body, when the last King had made her Queen, had become female so they would be able to be mates. Female demons were a rare commodity, it seemed, and Kyuubi had an "interesting" time adapting. Anyway, Kyuubi could not do it to Naruko, because Naruko would become male and could not be Naruto's mate like they both needed. Only Naruto could be made King, so they performed the ceremony. They had proved Naruto could be a dominate mate through the kissing, but they still had to become one. This could either be through sex or blood and Naruto's body had not gone into its first heat yet so blood was appropriate, though even in this exchange Naruto had to show his dominance and Kyuubi her devotion. Overall, she had become servant and mate, though Naruko would have precedence for she still had nine tails and Kyuubi now had none. As a symbol of the King, Naruto grew one tail that all demons would recognize as the authority they had to follow.

"There's only one thing I don't get," Naruto pondered. "Why exactly is it that we completely 'need' each other as mates?"

Naruko blushed a little. "I didn't want to have to tell you this yet... not this way..." Her hands were near her mouth, as if trying to smother the words she spoke.

Naruto approached her and put one arm behind her head, running through her golden hair, and with his other arm gently pulled her hands from her face so he could give her a gentle kiss on the lips. "Naruko, we have been together since we have been born. I feel something for you like no other. The crush I had on Sakura is stupid and insignificant compared to this. You are the only one I feel this way about. I'm not sure yet, because I've never felt this before, but I think I love you. It doesn't matter what you say, I will still love you." His calm blue eyes stared down at her with care and his smile was serious, but reassuring.

She reached around him and collapsed into his chest, crying. "Thank you Naruto. I wanted to know you felt the same before I told you. And now, and now I know you do." Her eyes looked up into his and he noticed that, despite her tears, she wore a smile. "We are mates not just because we are linked mentally and physically, but for everyone else's protection."

Naruto looked at her quizzically, and she rushed on. "As kitsunes, we will eventually go into heat. Then we need each other. No human could survive mating with us or satisfy us and we need to be satisfied to stop. Otherwise our desire changes into rage and an immense power. The reason Kyuubi attacked is because she hadn't mated since her mate died, over one hundred years ago. She needed to take out her aggression on something when she went into heat and Konoha was the closest thing." At this point the men watching had gone wide eyed. If these kids didn't have each other, Konoha would be screwed.

Naruto still stared down into Naruko's eyes as she broke into tears, this time of frustration and not joy. "I knew it! You hate me now that you know!" She flinched as tails wrapped around her gently. He used his hands to wipe away her tears.

"Now how could I hate my beautiful mate?" he said, holding her close. She breathed in his scent, a wild scent like summer woodlands, and he breathed in her scent, a beautiful natural conglomeration of crisp fall air and the perfume of rose blossoms. They stood like that for some time before they parted, looking lovingly into each other's eyes.

Jiraiya cleared his throat. "Well then, if you three are all 'mates,' then you'll probably want to live together. SInce you know the truth about your father, I could arrange for you to inherit the Namikaze estate."

The lovers broke their stare, almost reluctantly, and Naruto nodded. "That sounds good." He crossed his hands and made a kagebunshin to pick up Kyuubi bridal style as he did with Naruko. "Let's go," he said and Naruko giggled happily in his arms. Ten minutes later they appeared at the house and Naruto unlocked it with a blood seal that had been left as a lock. Yamato reminded him to be at training by seven tomorrow before he left with Jiraiya. Kyuubi was laid on a bed and tucked in while Naruto and Naruko explored the house. If anyone had been around they would have noticed that Naruto's hand never left Naruko's, not even for an instant.

**Anyways, review and share with friends. Criticism is okay and advice is loved. Hate mail is not desirable. Finally I guess I should say I own nothing.**


	5. Finding Who we Are

**Thanks for all the reviews. Maybe it was shallow, but I was trying to wait to thirty to post this. Oh well. More reviewing means more writing. Regardless, I do read them all and take them into consideration. Except the man who called me a "****sick fuck." That was unnecessary. **Anyways, review and share with friends. Criticism is okay and advice is loved. Hate mail is not desirable. Finally I guess I should say I own nothing.****

****Finding Who we Are****

The next morning was a tangle of limbs, tails, and hair. Naruto woke to a strange warmth. He kept his eyes closed, enjoying it, but could not figure out the warmth and didn't bother trying. Until he felt something bulging and round pressing into his back, and something snuggling into him in front. He opened his eyes to see his blond mate in front of him, close against his chest with a content smile on his face, and to see the red hair of his teacher and mate that wrapped around his head. He smiled at the thought of the two girls sleeping so peacefully until he realized the girls had fallen asleep in a different bed than he had.

He suddenly shot up, afraid of getting whacked by two women for somehow getting into their bed, and they woke up too. Naruko rubbed her eyes before looking at Naruto and smiling. Kyuubi sat up and yawned, stretching her arms out to the side and, being nude, giving Naruto an eyeful. The boy turned red and started to defend himself. "I swear I didn't mean to get in bed with you. I must have sleep walked or something."

The girls glanced at each other, laughed, and got out of bed. They went on either side on Naruto and hugged him. "You didn't come to us, we came to you," spoke the redhead with poorly hidden amusement.

Naruko then said, her breath warm on Naruto's ear, "Kyu-chan and I talked and we figured some things out. First off, Kyu and I need to be together. It feels cold by ourselves," said the blond.

"And secondly," took over the former queen, "without you near us, the way you have been since you were born, we get nightmares. Even after Naruko left your body you spent the night together." She also leaned in on Naruto, her mouth just a hair's breath away from Naruto's neck. "And it seems you've enjoyed sleeping with us too, huh?"

Naruto and Naruko at first, didn't understand what she was talking about, but, when they did, their tails shot out ramrod straight in surprise, much like Naruto's member they had just noticed. And, let's just say, the transformation the night of Mizuki's betrayal had changed it the same way it had changed his muscles. It had gone from average to quite noticeably large. Naruko caught a slight drip of blood that was coming from her nose.

The blondes backed away quickly, embarrassed, and Kyuubi, or Kyu-chan as Naruko was now calling her after a night of bonding, laughed at their antics. "You know Naruto-_kun_," she said sensually, purring slightly on the kun part, "you are now the mate to the last two female kitsunes. You have two years tops before you or Naruko go into heat, and one year tops before I jump you. I haven't mated in over a hundred years and don't know how long I'm going to be able to hold back. You'll have to get used to things like this." She slowly approached him, hips waving side to side, and pulled him in close for a kiss, parting his lips with her tongue, and savoring it.

All of a sudden, Naruto felt something base, something primal, well up inside of him and, eyes turning just a tinge purple, kissed her back savagely. His tongue now entered her mouth, exploring every inch of what was now his, playing with her tongue as well until she moaned and touched his aching member.

Regaining mental focus, he looked at his situation and stepped back quickly, leaving a dazed beauty in his wake and a blond whose hands had somehow found her nipples while watching the kiss. Naruko also stopped quickly. Kyuubi was the first to regain some of her composure. "Only a kiss and I'm already just a little wet. I can look forward to being your mate for a couple millennia," she smirked.

Naruto and Naruko gasped, not knowing this. "What do you mean millennia?" asked the nine tailed girl while Naruto nodded affirmation.

"Huh? Oh yeah," she said casually. "You two are now borderline immortal, like me. I was once a tailed "beast," and both of you are. We can't die of old age, get sick, and poisons won't work on you so well. Hell, we could probably even take a sword to the gut or heart and still live pretty easily. Only extremely drastic wounds or decimating jutsu could kill us now, and, once you two have mastered your tails, you will be immortal until something happens to them or you get trapped in a master seal like the one I was in. Me, unfortunately, only have the eternal youth part without the tails. Why did you think I only look like I'm in my twenties when I'm really almost as old as this land itself?" She licked the back of her hand, much like a cat cleaning herself, and completely disregarded the looks on their faces.

"Wait, you mean I'll look like this forever?" asked Naruko who had personally wanted to see what it would be like to age.

"Heavens no. You'll both stop in your prime, some time in your mid-twenties or so, and stay that way. After about one hundred years you'll be able to transform into large kitsunes like I was when I went on my rampage. For now you'll have to settle with being small foxes or large for only miniscule periods of time." She looked at the clock. "And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to shower for it is already six. And I feel like a very naughty, very dirty girl," she said walking out of the room but turning and pouting towards Naruto with the word dirty. She slammed the door laughing while the young kitsunes turned nearly as red as Kyu's hair.

They turned to each other, thinking similar thoughts. 'His body is so beautiful.' 'That smile she gives me is enough to live for.' 'He looks so cute when he's open like this.' 'And she's not just cute, but she's really hot too.' 'The red and the blonde together is just...' "Amazing," both said aloud before blushing, not having realized that they had been reading each others' thoughts.

Kyu, in the shower, was laughing her butt off at the mental exchange that she was now linked to, whether she made herself known or not. "Young love," snorted the vixen in laughter while shampooing her long, luxurious hair.

An hour later had a still embarrassed Naruto and Naruko walking to the training field with a chipper redhead alongside them. It was a good thing that their estate was on the borders of the village or they may have had to deal with the civilians again and, after eating breakfast, they had begun to wonder exactly how foxlike they had become. After the blondes had showered, managing to start and end their showers at the same time, they had come downstairs to Kyu. She had made breakfast and was sitting down at the table wearing a form fitting beautiful red dress that had slits up the side for easy movement and wore black shorts underneath. It had a black Uzumaki swirl on the back, so she must have pulled it from some closet in the mansion. Naruto and Naruko were in their new black outfits which both seemed to have plenty of. Yamato must have stocked their house in the night for, not only did they have the clothes, but also food.

Kyu had made breakfast, a combination of ramen, fresh meat, and the weirdest assortment of berries and roots. However, it seemed their new kitsune sides prevailed and Naruto found something almost as good as ramen in the foraged food. Almost. They tore into the food, eating with an insatiable appetite they had never before experienced. Apparently growing kitsune needed more food than the average person.

The more experienced vixen now walked along with a smile on her face. She kept up a constant stream of teases, just to see how red her mates' faces could turn. By the time they reached the training ground, Kyu's red hair was no darker than the blushes they sported.

They reached the training ground to find Yamato arguing with Jiraiya. They stood silent, hiding and listening. Yamato was speaking. "I just don't think missions in the village are the right things for them to do! The people are going to-"

"The people of the village are morons. They are all village idiots. Who cares what they-"

"Naruto does! He wants to be Hokage, remember?" Yamato was a tad exasperated.

"Exactly," countered Jiraiya. "We need him to do missions in town so they see he isn't bad. They need to see that a tailed beast is not the same as a demon!"

"Actually," spoke Kyuubi, moving from hiding, "they are the same." Both men looked sheepish at being caught. Yamato stared at the ground while Jiraiya twiddled his fingers. "You might like to know that, actually. However, the difference between a demon and what you call demonic is simple. We may be demons, but a demon is not intrinsically evil. We just get full of ourselves every once in a while." She smiled, thinking of some of her brethren.

"What are you doing here, Kyuubi?" asked the Sannin.

"We came to train, sensei," said Naruto, stepping out of hiding and pulling Naruko with him. "And Kyu-chan came to train us."

The men sighed. Naruto was right. After all, training came before missions anyway. They would have to burn the bridge of in-town missions later. "So, how do we get started?" asked Naruko in a cheery voice with a bright smile that made everyone else grin too.

Kyu looked at Yamato, having never taught before. Yamato looked at his senior ninja, out of respect. Jiraiya looked at his extreme senior, only to realize they formed a triangle of expectation. He sighed. Well, if the team he was a part of had broken apart and the team he had raised had become a bunch of bickering busybodies and a Hokage, then he had had plenty of mistakes to learn from. "I guess the first thing to do is to learn where you are," he said.

"Naruto, Naruko, you both know shadow clone, right?" he asked. The teens nodded. "In that case, perform the jutsu with all the chakra you can summon." The teens smiled and performed the hand signs.

"I'm not so sure that's a good-" Kyu started to say, cut of by the sound of "Kagebunshin no Jutsu!" and countless small pops.

The shockwave of released energy staggered Yamato for a second and then a cloud covered the entire training was like a smoke bomb had gone off. Jiraiya couldn't see his hand in front of his face and was wondering if they had messed up the jutsu. The smoke cleared and Jiraiya couldn't believe his eyes. They filled the trees, the ground, swam in the water of the training field, and piled on top of each other. The kitsunes had created over five thousand clones each, and each pair held hands calmly as if it was no big deal.

"Wow, that was easy," said one Naruto.

A Naruko on a tree branch spoke up. "Yeah, I feel like I still have plenty of chakra."

Naruto, nearby, said, "Yeah, I just barely scratched the surface. So, can we release it?"

"Sure," said Jiraiya while Kyu shouted, "No!" But it was too late. Ten thousand clones disappeared and two teens fell to their knees, gasping. Kyu smacked Jiraiya on the back of his head. "I said no!" she roared, protective of her young mates.

"Oh." Jiraiya realized his mistake. "Shit."

Yamato was at the kitsunes' sides and they quickly shook their heads and staggered to their feet. "Ow," spoke Naruto, rubbing his head.

"I have the worst headache," Naruko added, rubbing her head as well.

Yamato sighed. It was the aftereffect of the shadow clone. "That technique is a kinjutsu for a reason, you know. You gain all the memories of you clones and gaining five thousand recollections of a moment at a time is hard. It would drive a normal person insane. Not only that, but you split your chakra into so many pieces that each piece became weak."

Kyu smiled, an expert on the subject of demonic chakra. "You're half right. First off, you are right about gaining memories. However, you forgot to mention that memories of things like studying will be more taxing than memories of things like fighting. They have more thought and less reflex, you see. You're also right to say a normal person would be insane right now, but kitsunes actually have a higher intelligence than almost all humans. Our IQ is higher than average, but our capacity to store memory is nearly endless due to the need to store endless memories as time passes. I remember back to the day I turned seventeen and became a woman. That was about seven thousand years ago. Plus, kitsunes are already a little messed up in the head. Naruto's pranking came from my influence, after all, and now his desire to do so should now be his own, and stronger than before." She smiled at the thought as the other teachers paled. Yes, she could deal with the blonde as her mate.

"However, your note about chakra is off. They barely used more than they naturally had before they became kitsune. They just barely touched the power the tip of a single tail could offer. The only reason they couldn't make more was a self preservation factor that saved their minds from complete overload. However, being able to make many clones, and just enough clones so as to not go crazy, will be a great ability to speed up their training."

Jiraiya and Yamato were impressed by the prospects of what could come. Naruto and Naruko were just starting to understand their potential if they hadn't really even used the tails to clone. Naruko was the first to speak. "So what else did that tell you, Jiraiya-sensei?"

Jiraiya, hand on chin in a philosopher's pose, spoke. "The biggest thing I noticed was the chakra wasted. The smoke and shockwave were both evidence of that massive waste. If you each made five thousand clones, you each used the power for fifteen thousand, though I believe Naruko may have used less. Girls normally have better control and less chakra, true even in your case. After all, Naruto still has one more tail than you do." All the kitsunes nodded, Kyu in agreement and the blondes in acceptance of their shortcomings. After all, they may be powerful, but they were still only genin and only had the control of genin.

"Secondly, I noticed something rather interesting. In a normal shadow clone, they think independently and have the intelligence of the original, but your clones seemed more realistic and like the original instead of individuals. You even all thought along the same lines and independently reached the same conclusions. It's almost like you could read each other's thoughts."

The kitsunes laughed aloud at this. "Well," explained Kyu, "we might have a little secret for you guys, but you'll have to keep it quiet." The men nodded. "As both kitsunes and mates, we do hear each other's thoughts and feel each other's emotions. With clones who are each linked but think independently, it would allow for unique solutions to be found quickly, I suppose. Also, something you might not have known is the kitsune aptitude for illusion and trickery. The clones also probably seemed exactly like the original because they have a natural ability to hide themselves in a crowd."

Jiraiya pondered this new information. "Well, we know about their aptitude for ninjutsu now. Between their high intelligence you claim and the pure amount of chakra they have, they only need to work on control to improve there. How about taijutsu? Naruto, why don't you spar with Naruko while Kyuubi-san spars with Yamato so I can see how you all are?" They quickly agreed and faced their partners.

Yamato and Kyuubi started first, Yamato using a style that emphasized strong movements and a solid base. It was a perfect compliment to Mokuton. Kyuubi, however, used a style that was the polar opposite. She dodged and weaved with little effort. She didn't truly block, but met the force and changed its direction, countering with focused volleys of kicks and punches that targeted vital areas. Yamato was soon limp on the ground, having been grounded by a leg sweep. The partners smiled at each other and turned to look at the teens.

Their fight was, honestly, absurd. They were strong beyond compare and fast beyond belief. Their movements in close range were hard to follow and each contact, whether it be arm against arm or leg against body, resulted in a solid thud. However, they had no technique. Naruto used a bastardized version of the academy style, never having been properly taught. Naruko had only experienced the same and had never practiced it in her new body. It was a clash of clumsy titans, but it was still impressive.

They broke apart, panting and Jiraiya cut in. "That's enough for now, but we will have to focus on your technique and style. You two looked like very deadly, very dangerous, oafs."

'Then again,' he thought, 'what chance would you two have had to learn from poor teachers. Only Iruka cared, and he had an entire class to teach. I'll have to thank the man.'

Kyu cut in. "Genjutsu is last thing to check on, I suppose, but it's not very important. You see, your minds counteract it and eyes cast it. With the mind of a kitsune, an illusionist, you will always see through all but the very highest genjutsu, and you will be able to fight against even those. Your eyes, however, will be able to imitate any illusion you ever come across and make new illusions of even greater strength. You will only gain strength there as you are exposed to it. Otherwise, your eyes will have unique abilities. Each kitsune has one. I was able to catch any object I chose on fire. However, Naruto, with your ten tails, I don't know what powers your eyes will have other than those based around genjutsu."

Jiraiya felt like he was being slammed with new information every second, as did the blondes. After processing the information as best as he could, he spoke. "I think I have a basic plan for our schedule. Monday through Friday we will meet here at seven and you will each make one thousand shadow clones. Five hundred will come with me while five hundred leave with Kyu. We will alternate days in which the groups teach control and jutsu, and Yamato will go with who ever teaches jutsu to control any chakra leak. The originals will focus on weight training and endurance training, overseen by one of Yamato's wood clones. After two hours, the clones will be absorbed and new clones made. Six hundred or so will learn taijutsu while the others learn strategy, etiquette, history of both humans and demons, and basic theory. After two hours of this, we will disperse the clones and you will both have one hour of independent study, whether you study seals, medical jutsu, puppets, or any thing that takes your fancy. We'll take a lunch break and then come back and work on other things like kenjutsu or genjutsu. We'll work on whatever is needed, I suppose, until four in the afternoon and you will be free for the day. When I feel you two are ready, we will try a C-rank mission, but I'll be damned if I do D-rank. We are not chasing that fucking cat anywhere. Anyway, the missions will screw with the schedule so we'll change it when the time comes. Sundays are break days. Any objections or suggestions?" No one had much to say.

Jiraiya continued. "There is one more thing we need to talk about. This entire mating deal."

The blondes blushed and moved closer together. The ginger smiled. "Yeah, Naruto-kun," she said, "when are we going to do this? Until you mate or go into heat, your control will be hard to master. The hormones get in the way, you see."

Naruto felt uncomfortable in the situation, but knew he had to say something. "Give me a year. At the most, give me one year, and we'll all get married. I really want to be with you two forever. You fill a hole I didn't know existed, and that I'll never let you slip through. I will protect you two, no matter what. I promise, and I don't go back on my promises." As he spoke, power grew in his gut until he made his promise. It then released and a great wind blew through the area. A small flow of water, fire, and earth appeared around the mates' ring fingers and, in a flash of lightning, disappeared to be replaced by a ring. The girls each had a simple, yet elegant, gold ring with a diamond studded in the center. Naruto had made such a promise, after all. It was simple and true, and held a certain beauty. Naruto had a platinum ring now. It had ten small diamonds embedded around its length, each glowing with hidden power.

Naruko and Kyu smiled at the proposal while Naruto looked confused. "Your heart proposed and ours accepted. Just be careful. You are now the Demon King. Your promises are serious and unbreakable except by death. All five elements have bound our hearts now, and even the Demon King would have a hard time going against all of nature."

Naruto smiled now that he understood. "I don't know why I'd ever fight this. A loving family is what I've always wanted, and now I have you. I might not have known my parents or even who my grandparents are, but I know I have you."

Jiraiya felt a pang of guilt but, before he said something he'd regret, Yamato stepped over to Naruto and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I guess that makes me an uncle."

Jiraiya smiled and walked over as well. "And I'll play the father."

Naruto scowled at that. "Come on, my dad was a ton younger than you, ero-sannin. Plus, there's no way he was as perverted. You can be the grandfather," he laughed.

Jiraiya also laughed and before they knew it, everyone had been affected by his contagious laughter. Naruto held Naruko's hand in his and wrapped his other arm around Kyu's waist. She leaned in on him while Naruko wrapped both her hands around his one. If they only knew the truth.

**Anyways, review and share with friends. Criticism is okay and advice is loved. Hate mail is not desirable. Finally I guess I should say I own nothing.**


	6. Birthday Party

**Sorry about slow updating, but I'm still doing less homework than I should and I need my own time to read to stay inspired (even if I'm going to use a lot of canon). Should not have started the Hunger Games series if I wanted fast progress. Also, going down to Florida (such a shame, right?) and away from computers (now that actually is a shame) for a week slowed me down. I am already working on chapter 6. The name should be Demons Again.**

******I guess I should say I own nothing.******

**It lacked reviews, so you get filler! Bwahahahaha! Or I could just need to put this part in so I did. Regardless, that's over and done with. Action time after this! Though it really did lack reviews...**

**As for reviews, Kyu will not get tails back in my original plan. Who knows, maybe I'll change it.**

**Hinata is a nonfactor. As you'll get to see later, she's been getting to know Kiba.**

**As for age, well, that is revisited in this chapter so good timing on the question.**

**As for teams, if I thought I answered this and really didn't (thought I did), here they are. InaShikaCho same teacher, Gai's team has no change, KibaHinaShino same teacher, and SaiSasuSaku same team.**

**For those of you who may have been wondering, I don't plan to enlarge Naruto's harem past these two but, who knows.**

**Also, unfortunately, I can come up with new jutsu but can not find a way to spell what they would be in Japanese (you know, a way I could type in shadow clone and receive kagebunshin). Therefore, jutsu not used in cannon will be in English (sorry!). To tell you the truth, these jutsu will eventually be on a ridiculous scale and extremely powerful. I always believed the ninja were underpowered in general so, despite Naruto's massive strength, he will still struggle against his enemies who will also be stronger.**

**FInally, I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. Now, here we go.**

**Happy Birthday**

"Happy birthday Naruto and Naruko!" the group shouted, nearly scaring the guests of honor. They had been called to the Hokage's office on what was said to be "serious" business. If it hadn't been for their keen senses that had gone wild since training started, they would have jumped out of their skins. It had been two months since they had started their regimen, and they were progressing faster than ever thought possible, especially considering where they had started.

They had their senses wreak havoc, of course, ever since Naruko had been let loose. Going to the bathroom had been unbearable until they learned to limit the chakra to their noses. Unfortunately, they still had trouble controlling their chakra while asleep and being able to hear the sound of nature outside the estate, amplified to the extent of an amp set to eleven made sleeping extremely hard. However, over two months, they could bend some chakra to or away from their senses as needed. It had progressed as chakra control had.

When Yamato had demonstrated tree walking, Kyu had just laughed. When asked why, all she said was "Oh, you'll see." Naruto and Naruko each put a foot on a tree and concentrated chakra. Only to completely destroy the trunk beyond recognition. After all, that much chakra didn't just dent the bark, it tore right through it. After looks of shock and awe from their male senseis, they turned to Kyuubi who explained a better beginner exercise would be like the one learned in the academy where a leaf was balanced, floating over a hand. However, the leaves would now be weights and the hands would be single fingers at a time. They would start with weights that would be progressively smaller as they learned to limit chakra flow.

Despite the fact that Naruto had started at fifty pounds and Naruko at thirty, they had each gotten down to leafs, and then to tree walking. Water walking was also obtainable to them, but for a different reason. Instead of producing too much chakra that it broke through the water's surface, they used just enough chakra to more or less float their feet on top of the water, turning themselves into the leaf and the waves into the hand balanced upon. Jiraiya despaired that, without control, the rasengan may not be passed on to Minato's son.

However, if chakra control was still just barely there, it had made their reserves last nearly twice as long and, believe it, ninjutsu training with several hundred clones at once required a lot of chakra. Once they had been properly taught the academy jutsu they had missed out on (damn stupid teachers) they had taken a test using special paper to see what elements they could use. Much to the amazement of all the senseis - except Kyu who was wearing a smug grin - the paper had cut in half. One half then crumpled before burning while the other half turned to a dust that then became a damp paste. They both could use all the elements!

Naruko had focused on suiton and doton jutsu, taking after her sensei Yamato, though she also seemed to easily pick up all other types of jutsu. She thoroughly enjoyed the lesser known attacks that could be performed with these elements like abusing the iron and water in the blood stream. She would learn these in time, she decided, but right now was focusing on the large area attacks and defenses her enormous chakra reserves allowed her to use. Currently her favorite was one that allowed her to turn reasonably large areas of ground into swamplands with a strong downward current. Maybe not Mokuton, but still both elements at once.

Naruto had focused on katon jutsu once he discovered he took after his older mate. He had an affinity with flames that he didn't quite understand. He was even already able to use an A level jutsu, Blazing Shield, which incinerated most projectiles that were sent his way. This, however, was not one of his bloodlines inherited from Kyuubi. He loved the flash that katon and fuuton jutsu held. He loved the fuuton justsu he developed, Shroud of Blades in which one was both cut by wind and deafened by the howl it made. He only knew low ranked jutsu otherwise, except the kagebunshin, and planned to enhance his repertoire. He worked with his mate in private on a few other jutsu they had so far refused to reveal, but that was it. In the aspect of shock and awe, he took after his grandfather who also loved flashy jutsu and large summons.

Speaking of summons, Naruko had already been promised the kitsune scroll. Jiraiya had tried to give the toad scroll to Naruto, despite his age, but he had been denied. Gamabunta, it seemed, felt threatened by Naruto due to his ten tails. It wasn't out of discrimination, but out of the need to maintain his appearance of a boss summon. He couldn't be bested by a mere genin. Naruto would have to late for a later date to get a summon. Kyu said she knew of a possible summon, but that he would have to wait until his body went into heat for the first time or she forced it into heat for his body to prepare itself. Kyu seemed to know a lot more than she let on.

In fact, she did know more than she let on and only revealed it as needed. She knew, based off of the jutsu she showed each mate, which elements they would be inclined towards before they ever knew and had helped them develop personal taijutsu styles that had been perfectly designed for their bodies. It seemed she knew the extremely intimate sides of her mates as well, even better than they did. She once teased Naruko's ear with a slight nibble, knowing exactly how powerful her reaction would be. Likewise, she knew exactly what perverted words to say that would embarrass Naruto in public but still turn him on, despite his best intentions to not do so. The same way she was doing now.

"And is there anything I can get for the birthday boy?" she whispered into his ear. Despite knowing there were consequences for the King of Demons breaking his promise, she kind of just hoped she could get him in bed anyway. It was starting to drive her crazy.

And she was starting to drive him crazy, too. "No," he stuttered out. "I'm fine." He backed up into Naruko who decided to join in the fun.

"Are you sure? It could be a present for us both." She wrapped her arms around him and rubbed her face into the crook of his neck. She was joking, he could tell. Well, mostly joking, at least.

"Sooner or later," he said, putting his hands on hers. "But for now, maybe we should see what they have prepared for us?"

Naruko now blushed, realizing that they were not alone. But, after all, they were engaged. It wasn't out of the ordinary to joke so, was it? She nodded consent but still refused to leave his grasp. She settled for holding hands, their fingers intertwined. They went to greet the group.

Their senseis were all there, Yamato having dragged along his girlfriend along. It seemed that his calm personality had started to mellow out the Snake Mistress of Konoha, Anko, and that she got along well with the kitsunes. They all had a trickster inside of them and enjoyed trying to get a reaction out of Yamato, though it rarely happened. The best they had ever gotten was the smallest of nosebleeds when she had tripped and landed on him, accidentally grinding against his manhood. However, how could that not get a man to react. She was currently smirking at Naruko's blush but still greeted them with a large hug. "Happy birthday, gakis."

Kiba was standing with Hinata, his arms wrapped around her. He had, overtime, fully accepted his fiance and she had accepted him. The blondes had really helped them and were still some of their best friends. Kiba treated Naruto as a rival for Alpha Male, but it was friendly. Hinata still looked up to Naruto, and was jealous of Naruko from time to time, but she liked her boyfriend, maybe even loved him. She would eventually no longer have any of her previous feelings for Naruto, but merely see him as a brother. "So, fox," started Kiba, "what year is this? They're telling me you two are only fourteen like the rest of us, but I'll be damned if you don't look seventeen at least." Hinata nodded, interested as well.

Naruto put his free hand behind his head. "Well, I guess both are right and wrong. I'm fourteen years old, but mentally from all the crap I've gone through and physically I'm about seventeen. However, I guess this could be our first birthday. With Natsuke," (their name for Kyuubi among those uninformed), "and Naruko arriving in town for the first time, I guess a new life has been started for us." Naruko blushed and held his hand tighter while Natsuki also grinned a little.

Kiba groaned. "I'll never get that mushy stuff."

"Well maybe you should," said Hinata, no stutter, in a warning voice.

"Yes dear." Well, maybe he was learning after all. Or was just trying to avoid another Juken strike. Regardless, they seemed to be a good couple.

Shino, Shikamaru, and Choji were standing over by the food table. Shino and Shikamaru were too reserved and lazy, respectively, to say much of anything and Choji was just stuffing his face. Shika waved and Naruto spoke up.

"Hey guys! Haven't seen you in a while." Shika sighed.

"Well all you two ever do is train. If you ever want to relax, you know where to find me. Anyway, happy birthday."

"And eat," said Choji. "If you ever need a place to eat, come to my family's restaurant. They're okay with you guys, and I'll probably be there too."

"And how's it going with you, Shino?" asked Naruko.

The bug boy seemed to shrug beneath his huge coat. "Happy birthday. My present is with the rest."

"Birthday presents?" asked the duo instantly.

"I only ever got them from Jiji, and then Iruka-sensei gave me one once," said Naruto.

"Well, we'll make it twice, then," said a familiar voice.

The blondes turned to the speaker and broke into huge smiles. They almost seemed to faze out of vision and back in as they tackled him, yelling "Iruka-sensei!" Although Naruko had only known him since the Mizuki incident, he was the first person she ever truly met. They had quickly established a relationship much like Iruka and Naruto had, almost a big brother little sibling thing.

"Ow." That was all Iruka could respond with but Inoichi, Anko, the Hokage, and one or two of the genin had noticed the incredible speed they moved with, one that would eventually surpass the Yellow Flash.

"Hey! You better not break him you two!" yelled Ino, although in a joking voice. It had taken some time and a decent amount of her father's urging, but she had grown to be nearly a sister to the kitsunes. It helped that her teammates were starting to mellow her out a little too, as was her boyfriend. "If you hurt Iruka-kun, then our date will be no fun tonight."

Yeah, it had originally shocked everyone but, afterall, Iruka was only four years older and both were clan heirs. Iruka's clan was near insignificant, but as the last member, he had to have children at some point. This time it had been Ino's mother who had meddled but, hey, it worked. Damn, those mind walkers loved to meddle.

They had been dating for about a month and although she wasn't dating Sasuke, when Sakura teased her, she simply responded Iruka was better. He was older, a chunin, and (as she had slowly come to realize about Sasuke) was not emo. Plus, as a final insult, at least she had a boyfriend. Go figure, their brother was Iruka, their sister Ino, and that makes a second case of it all in the family with neither case being incest. Weird.

Both blonde mind walkers took a kitsune by one of their extremely sensitive ears and tore them to their feet. Naruto had the misfortune of being Inoichi's target. You see, over the last few months, they had become family friends and even near adopted. And, as they had both heard from Ino and experienced first hand, he may be kind, but he was quite, ahem, firm. He pulled Naruto into a firm fatherly hug after nearly destroying the ear (not that it mattered, it would have healed anyway) and then released him saying, "Happy birthday. Now, on to that table." He stepped aside, giving a grand gesture with his hands, revealing the Hokage's desk, now loaded with various boxes of different levels of decoration.

The kitsunes eagerly ripped through wrapping and plain boxes alike. While their grandfather and the man they called grandfather looked over them with content smiles on their normally so worn faces. New kunai and shuriken from the Yamanaka family, new jackets (fur lined) from Kiba and Hinata, and a few new Jutsu scroll from Yamato and Jiraiya. Anko, feeling obliged, had gotten them new chakra weights, though internally Naruto and Naruko laughed at how weak they were. Shikamaru bought them Shogi and Shino had bought Go, figuring they could teach them later. Choji's gift was wheeled in, a beautiful cake, rectangular in shape that had fourteen candles in the bottom right corner, seventeen in the bottom left, and nine that ran along the top, each appearing to be the tip of one of the nine tails the fox on the cake had. They had sat down to eat while the Hokage announced his gift.

"I have watched parts of your training and talked with your senseis. Although this is an exception, I have decided that you will be able to take a C-rank mission despite your lack of a record. You can come in tomorrow morning around this time to meet the client, but you will be escorting him to Wave where he will finish constructing a bridge. Pack for an extended mission." He smiled as he gave them this first push into being an active ninja.

"Hai Jiji!" shouted Naruto while Naruko merely smiled a winning smile and pulled closer to her zealous mate. Kyu, however, refused to be outdone.

She cleared her throat before speaking. "Well, I guess I'm left then." She smiled a very feral smile. "I've been working on it for the past month, but as a gift to the last two kitsune, I give the experience of their predecessors." She pulled out two sealing scrolls, throwing one to Naruto and one to Naruko. Naruto opened his out to find two knives, wicked and long like Asuma's. Both were made of a black metal, but one had a grip the color his his normal cerulean eyes, and one the color of his crimson eyes that he had when calling on his demonic chakra. They fit into his hands perfectly.

While he admired the blades, Naruko opened hers to find a long staff, taller than her by a few inches. It was a beautiful ebony staff, though it seemed, if you stared at it long enough, that surges of deepest red traveled its length. She gasped as she felt how right it was. Kyu just smiled, having known yet again what would fit her mates perfectly. She explained that they would not only grow as they grew, but would repair if they ran chakra through them and could be chakra reinforced.

"Oh and one last thing." she crossed her fingers as if releasing a kagebunshin and appropriately, the blondes eyes closed and moved as if in REM, the way they did with clone info overload. The weapons also disappeared into small seals on their wrists.

In a few seconds, their eyes opened and Naruto just said, "Whoah."

Kyu smiled. "And now you also have a good base, about twenty years of human practice, to work off of. This should be a good addition to your thirty years of training you have mentally undergone in these last two months. The experience you just learned is a recommendation based off of your styles, but is not the final word in what style you settle on. Also, they have been sealed and can be released through the back of your wrists. The actual scrolls they are contained in can also be kept on your person, if you wish." She showed them the hand signs.

They drank and ate, and laughed. The older ninja told stories while the younger ninja made bets and bragged. It was like one big family. Yet again, the elder kitsune had shown everyone up between stories and gifts. She had millennia of stories to tell and the gifts could not be more impressive. Their client, as the would discover tomorrow, appeared as unappealing as their gifts were amazing.

**Well, now you know most of the pairings.**

**Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination.**


	7. Demons Again

******I wrote both fights about four times and am still not satisfied. Oh well.******

******I guess I should say I own nothing.******

**I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. Now, here we go.**

**Demons Again**

When everyone went home that night, it was quite late. Songs had been sung, games had been played, sake had been drunk, and overall the Hokage's office had been destroyed. Once home, all three mates packed their bags and sealed them away, talking animatedly, and being extremely excited for the mission, barely slept a wink. When they arrived at the gate the next day, they quickly found Jiraiya by the groans he made due to his hangover and Yamato due to the snores he made from sleep deprivation. The lucky little kitsunes, however, were immune to most alcohol and other drugs so did not suffer a hangover. Also, as two had massive chakra and energy reserves and the other had a direct emotional connection to them, they were not tired in the least. Damn lucky kitsunes.

They harassed their male senseis until a man wearing dirty, dingy clothes, a beat up straw hat, and crooked glasses walked up to them. He sighed, lifted his hat a little so that his unshaven, scraggly bearded face became visible. He took a deep swig from an old jug of sake, the kind that the kitsune could smell from miles away to the proof of the alcohol. "I was told to look for an impressive man in a red outfit and those with him. Instead I find a drunkard," here he took another gulp, "a narcoleptic, a gorgeous redhead who surely is not a ninja, and two hyperactive animals. Well, at least I get five instead of the four I payed for."

Naruto pulled back his hand to punch the man in the jaw, but Naruko held it back and shook her head no. He sighed. He still hated being called an animal. Then he heard the man give a hearty laugh before taking yet another swig. "Well, at least the beast's got spirit. My name's Tazuna, and you'll just have to deal with me. Come on, kid, you're supposed to be protecting me. I don't want to have to hire four more as protection from you." With that he turned around and started to walk away from the village. Naruto sighed, unsure of what may or may not have been a compliment, and they followed.

As per defensive formation, the two kitsune walked a few steps in front of him, the vixen behind, and the men to either side. They chatted and Naruto grew to like the man some, though there was something supremely wrong. He was friendly enough, once you got past the drunken comments, but he seemed to be holding something back. He was so focused on his inner thoughts that his chakra control to his senses was left to waver. Only due to a lucky surge to his ears did he hear something odd. The sound of someone, Jiraiya, stepping into a puddle.

Now, the sage was too hungover to notice. The dryad was too tired due to his long night. The vixen was as inexperienced as the genin. Naruko, it seemed, was busy practicing her one-hand hand signs. The only one who noticed the sound, or really the puddle at all, was Naruto. And, as he had remarked when talking with Shikimaru yesterday, it hadn't rained in weeks. He looked at the puddle with some degree of scrutiny now, chakra in his eyes, and found something off though he wasn't experienced enough yet to realize that he was seeing through a genjutsu.

He instantly threw half a dozen kunai, imbued with a little wind chakra, into the puddle before yelling, "Get down!"

His timing was perfect, for, as he said so, Naruko knocked the client to the ground and a spiked chain, slathered in the strongest poison, passed over where they had just stood. It seemed these two had left the puddle in just enough time to escape the kunai. However, they had stood still just long enough for Kyu to use some of her chunin level chakra supply and doujutsu to catch their outer layer of clothing on fire. In a panicked moment they were distracted. It was just long enough for Naruko to pull off her current favorite jutsu, Sinking Swamp, with the one-handed signs she had just been practicing. They were surprised as the ground beneath them softened into a marsh and currents of water from the mud and muck pulled them in so that only their heads showed. They were petrified when the ground hardened around them again, too tight to perform hand signs, and Naruto's new blades rested on their throats.

"Now talk," said the Demon King, a snarl in his voice and pointed teeth showing. However, these two had not gotten the name the Demon Brothers for no reason. They were at least professional enough to not reveal secrets. They attempted to break out of the ground but Naruto, in his moment of rushing adrenaline, did not hesitate to use his knives, cutting cleanly through both of their necks without realizing that death with honor is what they had wanted. And he had given it to them.

Yamato and Jiraiya, after the initial attack, had stood by, ready to jump in if there was a problem. However, they were already training professionalism into their young students and they needed the real-world experience. Seeing both Naruto and Naruko losing their lunches, tails hanging limp, Naruto from killing and Naruko from being directly linked with his thoughts and emotions, they decided they had waited long enough. Jiraiya sat Naruto on his butt and Yamato guided Naruko over to him. They sat together while their grandfather and gave comforting words and friendly smiles. The first kill was never easy, they consoled them, but it is important to realize that if they had not been killed then the brothers would have hurt more people. It was necessary. Naruko took Naruto's hand in hers and he wrapped a few tails around her back. They were starting to recover as Kyu had. She had been shocked at his feeling of loss and his guilt, but she knew the feeling of killing and had recovered faster.

The sannin looked up the ninja in the bingo book and found they were c or b rank missing nin of chunin level. They were called the Demon Brothers of the Mist, known for their poisons and stealth. But they had made a simple mistake. A common cause of death among ninja. Regardless, it seemed the genin would now gain their own entry in the book.

"I think," said Yamato, "that you have some explaining to do, sir."

Tazuna sighed, took a swig, and rubbed his beard as if contemplating a response. "Well, cat's out of the bag, I guess. I guess this isn't exactly the definition of C-rank that they gave me when I requested a mission, but it's all my entire town could afford when we pulled our sums. You see, Wave, is controlled these days by a vile man." And so the architect told his story.

But, as he discussed why he was being targeted, two others discussed how best to target him. "Do you get it Haku?" asked a strong man, an apparent veteran of many battles past, a huge sword strapped to his back.

"Yes, Zabuza-sama. We will wait along the coast and follow the chakra signature I have sensed." It was a teenage girl with silky black hair and a beautiful, although pale, face. Her one passion was to serve her master Zabuza. It was absolute devotion. Well, at least she thought so. In reality, it may have been closer to love.

"With as much chakra as that person is carrying, they have to be at least some form of elite jounin. We'll wait until they're asleep before we attack. They're probably protecting someone, maybe our mark, and, if not, someone that strong is bound to have a nice bounty on their head." He smiled a toothy grin behind his bandages. Between the promise of money and of a good fight, he was in a better mood than he had been in weeks. As long as he could keep Haku safe, then everything would go well.

"And as long as you can keep me safe while we're building the bridge," said Tazuna with the group, "everything would go well for both me and the people of Wave.

"You realize that if these had been any other genin," Jiraiya remarked," they may now be dead against two chunin."

"Why should we help you when you lied to us?" asked Kyu, hands on her hips in a classic pose of intimidating women.

"But... we need you."

Naruko couldn't stand it anymore and Naruto was having problems himself. "What he did was wrong, but what Gato's doing is worse," she said, her voice quavering at speaking out against her sensei but firm in its determination. She felt Naruto wrap his arms around her.

"They need help, and we're the only ones here. How could we not do it?" He too was firm in his decision, even more so than her. She turned her head up to look at his face. The determination in those eyes set her body on fire.

Jiraiya let loose a small sound of exasperation. "Fine. We'll do it. But if I ever decide it's too much, we leave."

They were knocked over by the shock wave the blonde kitsunes' whoop of joy made. Tazuna had only one thought in his mind. Ninjas are freaks.

It was toward the end of the day, and the sun was only half visible behind the trees. Somewhere a bird was heard singing a note or two. Naruto and Naruko were laughing and telling jokes while the rest of the party just smirked at their happy-go-lucky attitude. Well, most everyone. One of their party, Tazuna, was starting to look at his escorts more closely. Her short skirt, slightly tanned skin, sunshine hair, and dazzling blue eyes were amazing. Not to mention the bust. It reminded him of his wife when he was young, though her hair had been a dark black. He must have let his gaze drift downward towards her nice, firm butt, for he was suddenly hit on the head from behind and turned to see an indignant redhead.

"Just watch it, sir. You may be a client, but that one's my mate and she's his. Despite the fact you are a client, there are ways to still punish one such as yourself." The vixen in the short red kimono walked forward and past him, a slight sway present in her hips as always, and this time, he purposely let his gaze drop. Yes, he believed he would willingly take a punishment from her.

They eventually reached the water between fire country and Wave, and took a discreet boat ride that Tazuna had prepared for them. In the mist, in the boat, they saw for the first time how bad Wave must have been. The man who owned the boat and captained it was frail and emaciated, and his voice shook with fear. But his eyes were the worst part. They were the eyes of an animal, beaten to the point where it had little fight left. They almost looked dead. But, not yet were they gone. There still was the smallest glimmer of light in them, and that was the hope they needed. When they reached shore, Tazuna thanked the man and asked if there was anyway they could repay him. He only said to succeed and that, if they failed, not to reveal who he was. He was taking a risk here, and didn't want to be punished for it.

The group agreed, and even gave him some of their extra provisions before they took off down the path. They neared a clearing with a small pond in it, and Yamato sighed. Was he normally professional? Was he normally wary? Was he normally tireless? Yes. But now he wished he could just stop after a night of partying and a day of travel. Jiraiya, however, was not professional, only wary when the occasion called, and certainly very lazy. And hungover to the list and then it was time to stop for the night. He dropped the pack he was carrying on the ground and yelled out, "We're good. This is enough for the night." And now Yamato had an excuse to pass out. And he did so.

"Anyway, we're just a few miles from shore and we'll certainly be attacked again if Gato hates Tazuna so much. This may be a last chance to sleep soundly before we go too far into Wave, so enjoy it. You know the drill and who's sleeping with who, so break apart and go."

"Hai sensei!" responded the blondes with enthusiasm. They took off and started to assemble the tents. With a few shadow clones it was done in no time.

Meanwhile, Kyu had sat down on her rump, one leg outstretched and the other bent in towards her body. She started to lick her arm like a fox that was cleaning itself. Only Jiraiya's perverted stare reminded her that this was not a common practice for a human. She soundly caught his pants on fire with doujutsu before getting up and going towards the pond. She was about to strip when she noticed the now singed sage was still staring at her lustily. She sighed. "Two things. First, I am going to bathe. If you look, you will have your manhood set on fire directly. Second, tell Tazuna the same." He gulped and she smirked. They both knew she wasn't joking. Jiraiya quickly left to find Tazuna, hoping he would take the warning seriously.

Meanwhile, Naruto and Naruko stripped too and joined their elder who was already relaxing in the water. It was cool, but not too cold. Plus, the sight of his two mates, frollicking in the water, nude, was enough to warm up his entire body. And I do mean his entire body. They noticed, for there was a slight chakra surge as his pheromones released. And damn, they noticed the pheromones too. The water started to steam a little bit due to raw chakra release from his body and they came over and tackled him into the water, barely hiding their lust as playfulness. As long as Naruko didn't go into heat, they would be able to hold back, but, if that happened, the promise he made would be useless. He had told them privately to wait until marriage for it, but it may have to be moved up if she started releasing pheromones too.

Zabuza and Haku were in the trees about a mile away, examining the sight of the camp through a mirror of ice that transported the image over a distance. They felt the wasteful chakra release from even this length, and Zabuza was happy he had not tried to attack them during the day. Their chances of winning would have been nonexistent. They looked at the girls and decided they were not the threat. They saw Tazuna and Jiraiya drinking and ruled out Tazuna. They even looked into the tent where Yamato lay passed out, an anime snot bubble forming from his nose. The three opportunities for strength was the drunk, the narcoleptic, or the boy whose chakra was leaking so heavily it heated the water. Zabuza was slightly afraid of what the tails may or may not mean in the blonde children, but, after all, they only appeared to be genin. Even tons of chakra meant nothing if they had no technique. The hidden nin watched until they ate and retired to their tents.

The bathers passed out quietly, a girl on either side of the boy in one tent. They lay their heads on his shoulders and their hands on his chest, innocent looks on all three faces. For some reason, though, Zabuza did not personally want to deal with them. He turned his focus to the second tent where all three men snored heavily, fracturing the previous quiet of the glade. The plan, was simple. Haku would use Makyou Hyoushou, Demonic Ice Mirrors, to send a barrage of senbon needles through the brains of those in tent one. Zabuza, in turn, would use water prison on those in tent two. They could then see whose bodies would be needed whole before they destroyed the rest. Oh, yes, my friends, they were doomed to be screwed.

It was late at night when Zabuza silently, slowly, covered the glade in mist that suppressed sound and vision. It covered the trees, the camp, and even infiltrated the tents, all using water from the pond. It was one of his favorite jutsu, and an especially excellent choice for assassination. Slowly, using some of the water from the mist, Haku made mirrors of ice appear within the kitsune tent. Well, at least she tried. It seemed something was dispersing the mist. That would have to be the chakra of the kitsune inside. She reported the failure to Zabuza and he merely thickened the mist around the tent so they wouldn't wake from hearing a disturbance and join the fight.

They continued with the plan, having Haku hang back in case she was needed as a trump card. He built up the chakra for his jutsu, did the hand signs, and formed one around the entire tent. In the end, however, Jiraiya woke up last moment at the feel of the chakra-laced mist and managed to perform kawarimi on himself and Tazuna, leaving Zabuza with only Yamato, a tent, and two small logs in his trap. "Fuck," swore Zabuza before he summoned several water clones. This was not according to plan.

The clones started going after Jiraiya and he, still affected by the architect's strong sake, was having trouble with both fighting and protecting the client. Haku debated helping her master, but he had not yet called her and she trusted his judgement. She just prayed for his safety. Jiraiya destroyed one clone with a fireball and blocked another's sword with Kunai, but his system was too messed up for any big jutsu right now. He knew he or Tazuna would die at this rate, him barely even being able to see his adversary. So he did the only thing he knew might work. "Naruto! The ramen's getting cold!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. In a flash two blond kitsune, able to hear him through the fog due to their enhanced senses, were at his side with expectant puppy dog eyes. They did not miss the blood that flew through the air as their sensei was cut by one of the huge sword, reminiscent of meat cleavers, that Zabuza and his clones used.

And the clones did not miss the fact that Naruto's eyes turned that very same color as the blood they just spilled. They came after their new targets, only one sprinting for the bridge builder. Another went after the downed Jiraiya, attempting to finish him off. Naruko and Naruto split up, Naruko using her suiton affinity and pure chakra to disrupt the control Zabuza had over the clone attacking Tazuna. It pooled on the floor, destroyed. Naruto appeared in front of Jiraiya, knives crossed to block the sword. Now, both ninja had twenty years experience due to Kyu's gift and Zabuza's life experience, but Zabuza had actually fought with his weapons before. Naruto managed to stop the downward swing, but could not evade the clone who lunged at him from behind. He was being wrestled to the ground and Naruko was being triple teamed. Her staff, imbued with earth, was strong enough to withstand the blows but she wouldn't last long against the jounin. A clone swung his sword down, cutting through the clone that was wrestling with Naruto and straight through Naruto's neck. And Naruto disappeared in cloud of smoke. It had been a shadow clone!

Just as Naruko was about to meet her end, the real Naruto appeared behind Zabuza, his blades going for the man's throat, but instead the man used substitution and released both the prison and clones by doing so. He stabbed Naruto in the back with a kunai when he reappears, driving the blade deep. He knew he was doomed and decided to take one out with him. He first gave a quick whistle and then went for Yamato, unconscious due to oxygen loss in the prison. Kyu, who had left the tent when she felt Naruto's warmth had gone, now dove in the way and managed to hit the side of the blade, deflecting the force, though it instead drove a deep gash her side. Zabuza tossed her aside and moves to go for Yamato.

"Kyu!" shouted Naruto and Naruko. No one messes with their mate.

Naruko charged the man despite her exhaustion and yet again diverts a blow meant for the jonin, though not as effectively as the vixen had. Yamato is still cut above the shoulder, not far from his neck. Naruto, bloody on the ground, strength leaving him, still had the focus to be making hand signs for his strongest fuuton jutsu, Shroud of Blades, to kill the Demon of the Mist and was nearly finished when nearly forty senbon needles flew from the trees from all directions and made the swordsman a human pincushion. Needles protruded from neck, chest, legs, every major artery. Naruto stopped his jutsu and the chakra that had built up left his body like a small shock wave, cutting the grass from the ground in about a four foot radius around him, even shredding all the leaves from a nearby tree to naught.

All of a sudden, a small, slim figure shunshined in front of Zabuza, back turned to the group. The person had long black hair, but their face could not be seen. They instantly bent down to check Zabuza's pulse and seemed satisfied. The figure turned around and a white mask with slits for eyes covered the face. The kanji for demon appeared on the mask, but naught more. "I am sorry you were involved, but thank you for helping me kill my mark. I bid you farewell."

It was a girl, by the voice. She lifted up the body, showing great strength for her size. "Wait just a second!" shouted Naruto. "He ambushes us, tries to murder us, and wounds three of us, and you can just take him away?"

"I am a hunter nin of the mist. That is my job. I will burn the body and return the head. Rest assured, there is no honorable burial for this man. Also, you are right," she said, cocking her head a little to the side. "Three of your comerades have been injured. Shouldn't you focus on them?" With that she shunshined away.

Naruto was angry. With Zabuza for hurting his friends. With the hunter for taking away the prize of killing the man. And with himself, for he had not focused on his friends or been able to protect them. His sensei and mates had tried to protect Yamato, and he hadn't been able to help them fast enough. That would change. "Naruko, start performing first aid." She had been hit hard, but it had not broken bones. She was the best available to do so. "Tazuna, get the bandages ready and listen to Naruko on what to do." The client was also still shocked, but they saved his life and he knew he owed them. So he followed this brat's order. With the last of his fading concentration, Naruto made shadow clones to patrol the area and keep guard the way he should have.

Naruto then passed out as well. He didn't wake up for two days, for the wound had been deep and the poison it had been coated with powerful, but at least he woke up to a comfortable warmth. A redhead on one side and a blonde on the other. Kyu's face rested mere inches from his, face calm, though her hand that gripped his tightly betrayed her. She was worried about him. Naruko made no attempt to hide it in her sleep. Her face was sad and she whimpered slightly in worry. Naruto could feel what they felt, and it was somewhere close to heart break.

They were so beautiful, he thought. They shouldn't have to deal with this. He should have protected them. And yet again, his resolve to protect those close to him hardened. It may not have been home, and there may still be fights to come, but he still had those who completed him, and he wanted to keep it that way. His tails wrapped around his girls in an embrace. The moved a little in their sleep, and snuggled closer to him. And the tension they had seemed to carry left them. They were all okay.

**Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. So, please review.**


	8. Friends and Enemies, One and the Same

**First off, I own nothing except my version of Naruko and maybe a jutsu or two.**

**I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. In regards to that, I would like to thank drewstultz, honorwolf1, and tstoldt for reviewing on my most recent chapter. Now, here we go.**

**Friends and Enemies, One and the Same**

The two weeks had been fairly productive for both squads, Naruto's and Zabuza's. When Naruto woke that morning he started to train like never before. 'I shouldn't have been so useless!' he thought. 'I'm the Demon King for Kami's sake!' And it was true. He was still weak. Perhaps he had ten tails, no less than that of the rumored Juubi, the first of the tailed beasts in the world. But that did not mean he could access those tails yet. Kyuubi then proceeded to drop the bomb.

"Well," she said, "neither of you have really even touched a tail of chakra yet. You've just used the inhuman amount of chakra you were born with." That had gotten the blondes and the men by surprise. "Yeah, you two probably have about half a Shikaku worth of chakra naturally, very impressive by human standards. In fact, your conversion into bijuu may have increased even that. Regardless, we now have to start working on you letting go of control." Now, if that surprised and excited the blondes, it scared the crap out of Yamato and Jiraiya.

With Yamato, Jiraiya, and Kyu not at their strongest, they didn't want the blondes getting bloodlust in an uncontrolled state. But Kyu just laughed at that. The only reason jinchurikki went insane was the pull of two souls on one body. Not to say that demons couldn't get a certain bloodlust in battle, but that power alone would not cause them to be maniacal. And for the rest of the week, with only a few dozen shadow clones each, the kitsune practiced bringing out their power while water walking near the bridge, close enough to help if something came up. Kyu may have calmed their senseis' fear some, but not enough for them to use a thousand clones like usual. If too many clones were to unlock power, they were still afraid of what the consequences may be.

It had been over a week of accomplishing nothing but falling into the water when their concentration, though Naruko, aligned with water, seemed to mind it less. Naruto, however, loved wind and fire. Every time he fell in he thought he looked like a wet rat. Naruko thought differently, loving the serious look on his face when he concentrated and how his chiseled upper body looked when he took off his shirt to wring the water out. The muscle was what made her lose concentration during the exercise. That and imagining what kind of "muscle" he may have below.

Of course, Kyuubi did not fail to notice the vixen-in-training's slight blush at such times. She continued to tease her mates, though not as much as usual. She knew they were struggling and frustrated, and she couldn't help them. Being born as a demon, her power and control had just come, well, naturally. Plus, with Naruto in heat she was pretty frustrated herself.

Naruto had expressed his frustrations at the dinner table and Inari, Tazuna's son, had responded rather moodily. Now, Tazuna's family wasn't bad. Tsunami, his daughter, was a nice, pretty woman with long, black hair. She was extremely motherly, both of her son Inari, and Naruto's team in general. Inari was a nice, responsible kid, but, as Naruto was about to find out, he had some baggage.

"You'll never be strong enough." The boy was staring at his food and had just muttered the statement, but Naruto's hearing was sharp and his tensions were high.

"What did you say brat?" asked the ten-tailed boy, his lips in a snarl that revealed pointed canines, his tails in a swirling violent dance behind him.

"It's Gato. You can train all you want, even use all ten of those 'tails' you keep trying to use, and still fail," said the boy, his voice growing in strength and gaining momentum. "The only heroes are tragic heroes. The only reason they're remembered is what they died for, and even then everyone forgets them over time."

The aura around Naruto was growing and Naruko and Kyuubi had both put their hands on him reassuringly pumping calming water chakra through his system. The last thing they wanted was for him to take out the client's son. He could feel them calming him, especially Naruko, but it wasn't enough. She may have water down, but he was fire. "So? Fuck him. You forget that they're also remembered for what they lived for and, besides that, it would be extremely hard for me to die anyway." He gave a slightly demonic laugh. "And besides," he said, one tail seeming to catch fire as he did so, "I will not be forgotten. His power is false and fragile. Mine is raging and strong. He did what came naturally to him and became a snake. But, I am a man, or something even stronger. He may strike at my heel, but I will crush his skull."

"You can't beat someone like him. He's just too strong." Inari was tearful. "Not even my dad could..." And the tears let loose.

Between seeing the tears and the water chakra's influence, he managed to hold back. "What do you mean, your father?"

And Inari explained. He had been tormented by some of the other kids of the village. They were taunting him, threatening to hurt his pet, and when they threw the dog into the sea, he dived in after. But he couldn't swim. He woke up at the campsite of a traveling man who had saved him. The man was strong, handsome, and - more than anything else - kind. He told Inari that, if something was truly precious, you had to protect it with both arms. Naruto agreed with that wholeheartedly. From there, the man, Kaiza, had gone on to become Inari's surrogate father and his mother had looked at the man as a brother, or something even closer. But, unfortunately, the man's beliefs would catch up with him.

One night, in the middle of a horrible storm, they heard someone knocking on their door. It was a villager who said that a section of the village would be flooded unless the flood gate could be closed. Disregarding his safety, Kaiza jumped in, attached a rope to the gate, and helped shut the gate. He was a hero. But Gato could not stand a hero.

Gato's thugs were sent to take the man, beating him senseless in front of his Inari before they brought him to the center of town. There, to show the people that he was even stronger than their "hero," Gato beheaded Kaiza before throwing his body into the ocean, calling it an unmarked grave for someone who never made a name in the world, laughing as he walked home. Now Naruto could understand why Inari had lost faith.

"Maybe your father lost, but I will make the man suffer before he dies. Your father was a good man, and a brave man. And now I'll show this beast what a demon looks like before I send him to all those demons in Hell below. This I swear." In something similar to Naruto's engagement, the elements responded. This time the gust of wind broke the windows as it entered the room, the elements of water, earth, and fire danced around his forearm, and when the lightning struck, all the other lights in the room went out. All the light that remained was the tattoo on his arm, a simple pattern that looked like a series of waves in a circle around the arm. It glowed in a calming, gorgeous rainbow of light that made it look like the waves were traveling around his arm. They looked to see that Inari had one as well, and that the boy was leaking a certain level of chakra that he hadn't contained before. It seemed Naruto had given the boy a gift as well as a promise.

Kyu used her power to relight the candles as the rest of the group still stared at Naruto's new promise. Naruko knew she would do her best to help her mate follow through on his oath. Naruto reached his hand across the table, and Inari, after a moment's hesitation, reached to hold it. "He will not hurt me, little brother."

Inari broke at that, sobbing with joy, and the others promised the same. Jiraiya stood to the side as dinner progressed and couldn't help but wonder if the influence Naruto had on others, the one where his smile made you want to cheer the boy on, was demonic or natural. And then he decided he didn't care. He joined the group to have fun talking and eating, and left it at that.

Haku couldn't believe that her master had been defeated so easily. He was too perfect to be beaten, she had thought. And now she was proven wrong. However, with only the boy and girl at full strength, Zabuza was sure to triumph when next they fought. After all, the others may have the same time to rest, but they had gashes and slashes to heal while Zabuza only needed to recover chakra and from the near-death state. Regardless, it would take about half a month.

She had been about to kill Gato when he had come to Zabuza's recovery room uninvited after just over a week had passed. The man had threatened Zabuza's very life should he not attack the Leaf in another week's time. Zabuza scoffed, though the very action hurt. He promised that he and his partner, Haku-chan would do so. In fact, the only reason Haku didn't kill Gato is because she was so excited, yet confused, that Zabuza had called her his partner, and even said chan! It made something inside of her that had been frozen since she killed her father feel warm. It was an amazing feeling.

That next morning, still in a slight daze, she had gone out to find more of the herbs she was using to help heal Zabuza. She wore civilian clothes, a knee-length pastel yellow sun dress and her hair let down so that the entire glossy ebony length of it sparkled in the early morning sunlight. In this pleasant daze, she walked into the clearing where she found the herbs last time and bent down to pick some when she saw two blonde teenagers, mostly clothed though the boy's top was removed, spooning in the clearing. The boy's tails wrapped around the girl while hers covered them both like a blanket. Wait, tails?

She slowly got closer, creeping stealthily over the ground so she wouldn't wake them. She pulled water from the air around her and formed two senbon needles, ready to end them here. But then she took notice. His arms wrapped around her body and her hands clasping his, smiles on both of their faces.

The fake Hunter nin wished she could have this with her master, almost feeling cold where she imagined the girl would feel the warmest, right where the boy's hands held her close. Instead of stabbing them, the needles melted, and a single tear she couldn't quite figure out the origin of fell from her face. And right onto the kitsune boy's.

The day after Naruto got his new ink, they continued to train, but this time Kyu had a new idea. "What did you feel like when you made your promises to us and Inari?" she asked after they had walked onto the water's surface. "You might not realize it, but those right there used at least four tails of chakra production for each promise."

"I don't know, Nat-chan," said a thoughtful Naruto. They had called Kyuubi Natsuki in front of others and, when they had talked, she like being called a name her lover had made more than a title an uncaring sage had determined based off of tail count alone. Therefore, she was Natsuki. "Both times I simply knew it was the right thing to do, and something I could agree with whole-heartedly. I didn't doubt myself or struggle. I just did what my heart told me to."

Following his heart, huh? Kinda cliche in my opinion but, with the looks of desire he received from Natsuki and Naruko, apparently the girls thought it was hot. Or that could be because he was still pumping out pheromones.

"Then try it again. You too, Naru-chan," instructed Natsuki. "Instead of digging inside of yourself or forcing it out, just will it to happen. Tell yourself you need to do it. Like I had said, it was all natural for me. I did what I wanted and the strength followed."

Both blondes did as instructed, thinking about what they wanted the most. They closed their eyes for a second to clear their mind of everything else. Naruto and Naruko instantly, possibly because of their mental link, thought of each other. And then they opened their eyes. All of a sudden, a surge of red energy left their bodies and continued to leak from them. It flooded the surrounding area and, for some reason, the men on the bridge felt reinvigorated. When Natsuki had been oppressed into attacking the village, her chakra had felt aggressive and hurtful. It seemed, however, that when these two released their chakra that was filled with care and purest love, the chakra felt the same way. It was amazing.

The only downside is that Naruto became self-conscious of how Naruko felt about him. They both loved each other with all their souls, and knew that their mate did so in return, but Naruto hadn't realized his pheromones had been affecting her so, or even that he was releasing them. He moved closer to her and embraced her softly, her eyes growing wide at how gentle this alpha was to her, and how powerful the scent was this close. "I'm sorry. But we can't. Not yet."

The chakra she released had an annoyed edge to it now. And an angry one. 'They were mates. Why couldn't she just jump him now?' she thought.

"Stop that!" yelled Tazuna who was also affected by her new chakra as his workers were. They were mainly fearing the women in their lives.

Naruto stopped her concentration with a deep kiss she returned readily. "But we will one day," he said. And she felt guilty she had been so impatient. They turned off the chakra and turned to Natsuki who now began to explain how their new chakra source worked.

"I was wrong earlier when I said you guys had about half of the amount of chakra that Shikaku has. You guys probably have just a little more than him. That means that only Son, the Yonbi, has more chakra than either of you two and that you each have the chakra of all the Hokages of the past combined, plus a sannin or two for good measure. You could even increase that with time. Your control just really sucks right now." Not a single person understood that. They had nine and ten tails and the Yonbi had four. How could they have less chakra with over double the tails?

"You see, a lot of people think that tails are pure chakra. They are wrong. They are, when activated, constantly working chakra generators. Technically all biju have infinite chakra, but you two regenerate chakra the fastest. One tail activated, you regenerate all your chakra in less than twenty minutes, probably about seventeen. Nine activated, it only takes about four seconds. But, until you have all of your tails in use and good control, you could still run out of chakra. But once you have all of them and increase your control, you'll basically never run out of it. And you," she directed the next comment at Naruto, "will regenerate your entire store of chakra in about two seconds, if I had to guess."

She turned back to both kitsune. "Now, the other reason your tails are better than those below you is that not only may you constantly generate chakra faster, but you can do it for a longer period of time because activated tails help support each other. This means you can fight stronger and longer, probably a nearly indefinite time for you, Naruto, as I could last fighting for a month without my tails starting to fail me, as they have only done once before."

While Naruto was fantasizing about the power and what he'd do with it (he was still trying to figure it out but thought it may end up including his two mates and a humongous bowl of ramen), Naruko was practical.

"So Natsuki-chan, I didn't notice exactly how many tails I was using," she said, expecting it was at least five. "Would you be able to tell us?"

The vixen laughed out loud at that, wiping the tears from her eyes. "That's a rich one right there." She continued laughing a full laugh.

Naruko was getting indignant. First told to wait and then laughed at for succeeding in bringing out her power.

The older woman finally caught her breath and sighed. "Oh, I haven't laughed like that in years. Anyway..." she said, drawing out the anyway for as long as she could, "you activated one tail and didn't use it. Lover boy over there used one tail and was touching the edge of activating the second."

'Well, damn' thought Naruto. "I thought it would be easier to use all nine."

Natsuki laughed a little again. "The last time I used nine tails, all of the shinobi in Leaf could not defeat me, many not even being able to stand my power. Only the Shinigami brought me to my knees. Now that you know what nine tails are like, do you really think you used more than one?"

Naruto and Naruko nodded no. "Didn't think so. I know it's hard to have power in your sight but out of reach, and I'm going to do my best to help you train to reach it. That's all we're going to be doing for now, and the exercise is as follows. You noticed that emotions can be shown in your tailed-states quite easily, right?" The teens nodded, Naruko dreading further secrets would be revealed. "Well, they can also push you further into or out of using your tails. Your training will be endurance training in which you and six shadow clones each will use your tails and think thoughts and force emotions that will distract the other, all while water walking. Another seven clones of each of you will be on the other side of the bridge, projecting thoughts and emotions that may deepen the other's state. Once your clones dispel at the end of the day, you will know what they know, and maybe know each other more easily. Understand?

"Yes, Natsuki-sama," replied both, for they often used sama when she was instructing them. They created the clones as directed and the originals started, immediately, an unannounced spar. After all, what was more distracting than fighting. The other clones on the distracting side started tactics that involved name calling, face making, sending powerful emotions across the link, and even chasing the partner around. One group, for often shadow clones had less inhibition than the originals, just looked at each other.

The male Juubi clone of the group looked at the Kyuubi clone and then smirked a mischievous smile. "Wanna make out?"

The vixen-in-training blushed but was more than ready to comply. After all, if Naruto's scent alone made her crazy then kissing him was really going to make concentrating hard.

After a few minutes, the originals took a break from their heavy-duty sparring and looked at their clones, pausing a second when they realized that those on the side that was meant to deepen the tailed state were performing the same exact exercises as those on the breaking concentration side. Well, both involved strong emotion, after all, and they were the same people so thinking alike was common.

Then their eyes strayed over the two couples making out and Naruko blushed, and was a tad jealous, though she knew she would get that memory later. Naruto himself subconsciously let out an approving growl, not realizing he did so until after the fact, and then he looked at Naruko to see if she had noticed. She seemed to have her eyes locked on the kissing couple and not notice the growl. He stared at her body working his way from her shapely legs to her firm ass, her flattened stomach and curvy breasts, and then to her face. Her blue eyes showed embarrassment, but not because she was ashamed. It was because she wished she could do it herself but couldn't bring herself to do so right now.

In truth, she saw him looking at her, staring at her as if in wonder at a Goddess. It just made her face turn a deeper shade of red. He saw the peaceful smile on her face, the blonde hair blowing back in the wind around them, even the tails that swirled around behind her as if to distract from her because she was embarrassed and didn't feel worthy of him. But Naruto knew she was. So he did the one thing he could think of doing to show her he loved her.

He walked over. grabbed her around the waist, dipped her down, and gave her a long, slow, deep, passion filled kiss that showed his emotions even greater than the link he had with her. At first she was surprised, but quickly let herself be taken be the Demon King, kissing him back and loving the strange feeling of their tongues rubbing against each other. Ironically, the emotions performed both exercises. They, for a second or two, both shot up to using three tails at once before it shattered due to the complete lack of focus. She moaned lightly into his mouth from the feelings the kiss and pheromones were making in her and they continued, barely remembering they were supposed to be training, until Naruto nearly ran out of breath.

He pulled away, a string of saliva still trailing from his mouth, and said what would make the girl pass out. "You know that you taste absolutely delicious, don't you?" Yep, that was all that was needed to do the deed.

Natsuki was standing on the bridge and interrupted their moment by yelling down to them. "Working hard or hardly working?" She laughed at their flustered reaction, faces blushing and looking away, though they still held hands. "Regardless, keep it up. Not sure if you're realizing it, but, Naruko, you've got a full two tails in use and you, Naruto are verging on a third." She quickly turned away, a smug smile on her face. It wasn't every day you got to both tease and encourage your lovers at the same time. Well, maybe it was for her.

Regardless, the kitsune teens continued to "train" while water walking, tree climbing, and balancing various objects with chakra. In fact, they were still avidly "training" when work was done for the day. They had actually managed to solidify the power of a tail or two without constantly making out, though it only lasted for a few minutes and as long as they were relatively close. They went home with the group, and then went out to continue training.

This time, however, they did more than just focus on tails. They brought out their tails and then attempted the pure chakra based jutsus they had been practicing in secret. And then made out to get their tails back before continuing to train. They, in fact, trained until the sun was just hinting at the edge of the horizon, before passing out, spooning, in a clearing they had found. And then Naruto felt something, interesting wake him up.

It was warm, wet, and, for some reason, reminded him of the feeling of the demonic energy he had in his own body. He opened his eyes, surprised to find Naruko still asleep. And if she was asleep, then who had demonic power in them?

A soft voice, feminine, called faintly, "Hello?"

Haku cursed at herself for her mistake. How could something as unprofessional as a tear betray her? And now she noticed his body tense up. It was slight and he tried to conceal it, but it was there. He was awake. He might not have known who she was, but she knew who he was and how strong he was. Between him and the girl, she couldn't win and, for some reason she couldn't figure out, she felt something wrong about attacking him anyway. It seemed almost like something inside of her cried out it was a crime to do so. It wasn't anger, or love, or even curiosity. It was pure, unadulterated, and unexplainable respect. If she couldn't attack, and couldn't run at this point, she could diffuse his tension.

Summoning up a gentle voice, she said, "Hello?"

Seeing he had been caught acting, he opened his eyes and stood up, waking the girl in the process. He stood between the girl and Haku, his body casual and relaxed, but two things betrayed him. The eyes were cold and the tails stiff, forming a wall to protect the girl.

Haku watched with curiosity, as he took an unnecessarily deep breath, eyes closed. He exhaled and reopened his eyes. They were now a little softer, though his tails were still guarded. "Good morning," he said congenially. He smiled a little, and Haku saw his pointed canines. What exactly was he?

"Sorry I woke you," said the ice-girl, "but I've never seen anyone here before when I come to gather herbs."

The boy smiled a little further, his guard dropping further. He slid a hand behind his head and said, "Yeah, I suppose you could say we're from out of town." He gave a goofy laugh and his tails slowly dropped. He could just tell, for some reason, that she wasn't a threat. He turned to his compatriot, who had gotten to her feet and was watching, and said, "My mate and I have just come to visit for a little while. Just like you and yours, right, Ms. Hunter Nin?"

Fuck. How had he found out? She backed into a defensive stance, hands straying to her sides where she typically produced ice senbon. "So you know who I am?"

Naruko also quickly got in position to attack, but Naruto held out a hand for her. She came forward and he took her hand softly as if to say she shouldn't worry. Well, her Naruto-kun may know something she didn't, so she'd listen for now.

"Well, I know you're with Zabuza and that you two seem to be very close, though your face disagrees, I can feel your heart does," Naruto said. "In fact, your heartbeat and blush tell me you wish to be even closer. I wonder if he knows?" He rose an eyebrow and she blushed further. "Regardless, if you were wondering, the smell and chakra signature gave it away. But that is something for another time." He paused for a small moment, as if coming up with an idea, before he smiled a full smile and stated, "Well, if he's going to be ready to fight, than he'll need to recover fully. What can we help with?" asked the blonde. His mate seemed unsure, but a glance from him convinced her and Haku couldn't help but trust him, though she didn't know why.

They spent the next hour sitting down and talking while an army of clones went to work to find the plants. They spoke of sensei, of past hurt, of family and abandonment, though they never revealed what could be useful in a fight. Naruto openly wept at her pain, and Haku at his. However, after what seemed like just a few moments, the clones returned. One tapped Naruto on the shoulder and he turned to face him, still laughing from a joke Naruko had told, and wondered what the clone had to say. "Boss, we're done. We've got everything on the list and more."

Naruko smiled, "Thank you, guys." Both blondes dispelled their clones, spaced out for a second, and then returned to reality. Naruko was happy that she now knew what several new healing herbs looked like. She picked up the basket left by one of the clones and, with a little bit of regret at what it meant, handed it to their new friend. You see, it meant this truce was over.

Haku, now in a better mood than she had been in for a long while, took the basket gingerly. She was happy her Zabuza-sama would recover quickly, but was sad when she knew she could no longer be at peace with her only real friends, and may even have to be responsible for their deaths. He hands paused on Naruko's as she took the basket. "Thank you. Thank you so much," is all she could choke out before she started to sob. She took the basket and ran, knowing she couldn't make it any easier by staying longer.

"Bye, Haku-san!" called Naruko. She had a bittersweet smile on her face.

Naruto, however, was different. He seemed to know something she didn't. "We'll see you later! Make sure you're ready for the battlefield when the time comes!" Haku did not mention her meeting to Zabuza for a day or two, and the man seemed to gain respect for his opponents, knowing that they had Haku at their mercy and did not hurt her. Likewise, Naruto and Naruko told their sensei about their meeting. They had mixed emotions about it, but Natsuki took the young kitsunes aside and they seemed to come up with a plan. Both sides trained and ate and lived. They strived to become better. And then they met again, and, as Naruto had predicted, it was on the battlefield.

**Cliffhanger? Yes. That's what only three reviews get. Ha! (Wow, I never realized that as cheesy as these notes seem they are great stress relievers.) Anyway, would have gone farther but midterms came and so did scholarship deadlines. Well, I might have more time to write again now.**

**Regardless, here goes again. ****I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. Thank you and good night!**


	9. Icebreaker

**First off, I own nothing except my version of Naruko and maybe a jutsu or two.**

**I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. Speaking of which, I would like to thank my reviewers. McGeezel, an, drewstultz, figglewiggle24, taranth, ultimatemh, Brandon Graham 88, and Jadeclaw. Special thanks, though, to Genericrandom for his scathing review and slightly gentler PM's we had. Messaging me with concerns works too, you know. Anyway, here we go.**

**Icebreaker**

When she woke up that morning, Haku could feel something was going to happen. It was a steady energy that flowed from the next room over that told her that Zabuza was awake. His chakra had finally stopped focusing on repair and was back to full. She jumped out of bed, ran to his room, and glomped him. Yes, it was undignified, but she was happy he was strong again. She soon, however, realized, what she was doing to a man who was naked beneath his sheets. She blushed and pulled back, but was pleasantly surprised to find his arms continue to hold her somewhat close.

His bandages had been removed from his face while he was healing, revealing a handsome jaw line and a new scar that was not ugly, but only made him look rugged. He was smiling. He was smiling that this injury to his face was finally healed, that his body was up to par again, and that Haku, his beautiful ice sculpture, may finally be melting. He would do his best to help that process along, maybe finding what the foreboding ice hid inside.

But today, there was work to be done. One of the hands he held her with went to a stray hair that got in the way of her beautiful face. It seemed so weird that this brute of a man could be so gentle with this china doll of a girl. He put the same hand to her cheek and said, softly but with authority, "We're doing it today. We'll go to the bridge just as the sun starts to set, and then we'll attack. But, Haku-chan, if something happens, run. I don't trust Gato and these Leaf nin are strong."

He went to remove his hand from her face, but she held it there with her own hand, enjoying its warmth before vehemently saying, "I'd never leave you, Zabuza-sama!" He smiled a melancholy smile, believing her and regretting that it was true. She wouldn't leave even if it meant her life over his. He stroked her cheek once, before standing up.

"Kun. Kun works." He smiled a stronger smile now. "And if you won't, then I'll need to make sure I'm up to full strength. If you need me," here he picked up his huge sword effortlessly though he used only one hand, "I'll be doing some light training to warm up for this." He left the room, still smiling, leaving an awestruck Haku still in the room.

"Yes, Zabuza-kun," said the love struck girl, still staring at the now empty door frame. She would not fail him, though little did either of them know that they could not win.

Likewise, Naruto had felt the fight would occur today when he woke up. He inconspicuously suggested that the toad sage take a day off to watch over Tsunami and Inari while the rest went to the bridge. The man had readily agreed, thinking that he may even get the chance to do some "research." The truth was that not only would the two need protection from Gato if Naruto was correct, but that he might not stand for the plan he and Natuski had constructed.

In such a fashion, three kitsune and jounin set out from Tazuna's house, the old man with them, and headed towards the bridge. It seemed to be a normal day of construction and everyone was in a good mood. The bridge would be complete in three week's time or so, and hope was in sight. Everyone followed their normal schedules, though the genin were training less than usual.

After several hours had passed, lunch was eaten and still no attack had been launched. Naruto relaxed a little. And then, just as he was sitting on the edge of the bridge with Naruko and Natsuki, legs dangling, eyes staring into the sun, now just starting to set. The sky was starting to tint a slight crimson as if it were blushing. Natsuki laughed at a joke Naruto had just told, Naruko snuggling in closer to him, the men on the bridge jealous of the affection this ninja was getting. And then, Naruto's smile froze as did Yamato's who had been laughing too.

The sun was starting to blur. Everything was, actually. A soft mist had started to set in, but this mist was not natural. It started to thicken and, instantly, the ninja were at Tazuna's side. In just a few minutes, the fog was much to think to see through. Naruto and Naruko looked at each other and nodded. Each activated a single tail, each expelling enough chakra the clear out the fog on their section of the bridge. It revealed Zabuza, arms crossed, and Haku, arms at her side, were merely twenty yards away.

"So we meet again, kitsune," said Zabuza, getting an excited smile on his face.

Naruto stepped forward with Naruko. The boy smiled back and the girl waved towards Haku. "Yeah, I guess we do." And that was that.

In just a few seconds Naruto had broken off to fight Zabuza using his trench knives and Naruko was fighting Haku. The girls seemed to hold back some, afraid to hurt their friend though knowing it would happen before their fight ended. The males, however, seemed to be fighting to see who the Alpha was. Naruto's knives were much faster than Zabuza's sword, but Zabuza definitely held the range advantage if he just continued to keep his distance like the expert swordsman was currently doing. Nonetheless, Zabuza continued to accumulate a mass of small cuts all along his body while Naruto remained unscathed. After all, Naruto had been practicing with his knives while Zabuza had been stuck motionless in bed healing.

The swordsman decided he had enough of the matter and, after driving Naruto back with a particularly strong strike, performed hand signs rapidly and tried to bring a water dragon up onto the bridge to strike Naruto and make him lose his base. However, as it was about to hit Naruto, he simply side-stepped the attack, put his hands on the dragon, and surged his chakra. The focused water simply fell to the ground in a huge splash, its connection to its master overwhelmed by the blunt force of this pure energy. Naruto quickly jumped towards Zabuza and, using heavy chakra reinforcement, sliced downwards. The swordsman was still fast enough to block, but, as strong as the attack was, it went right through the blade, fracturing it, and straight into its target.

Naruko had finally decided that she was tired of taijutsu and decided to try to merely trap Haku in her Sinking Swamp jutsu. She did not take into prior consideration, though, that the bridge was concrete, and her justsu failed. Haku, too, had also had enough and called up her own personal trump card. "Makyou Hyoushou!" she called out while performing one handed hand signs, an action that Naruko was surprised someone else her age knew and used. In fact, the way Sinking Swamp was made was that one hand was used for forming the jutsu to loosen the earth and the other hand for forming an undertow. A dome shape of many huge sheets of ice were surrounding Naruko. She turned her head around, looking for where Haku was could not find her, but then her picture appeared in the ice. The girl was somewhere in one of the many ice mirrors surrounding Naruko.

Naruko, even with her kitsune senses and instinct could not tell which was which. She decided on a simple course of action. She ran and punched one full force, only to create a small crack which simply mended itself. She merely broke something in her hand for all her effort. Haku seemed content to wait in her mirrors so Naruko brought out her staff and, using chakra reinforcement, tried again. This time, the mirror nearly broke, but caught itself while falling and reformed.

Naruko sighed as she had not planned to use this jutsu she had developed with Naruto for quite a time yet. And not against a friend. She surged all the chakra she had into her staff and swirled it around her head. It seemed to release a bright shining light and all of the mirrors shattered, Haku herself flying from the mirrors as if struck. She landed on the ground, skidding to a halt just as Naruto was about to bring down his knives upon Zabuza. She jumped in front of the attack, expecting death, only to be completely shocked.

Zabuza and Haku looked at what appeared to be an arrow, cut into three pieces. If it had not been blocked, Zabuza would no longer be among the living. As it was, his sword was destroyed and Haku's strongest attack rendered useless by Naruko's pure chakra. The Demon of the Bloody Mist decided to take a chance. "Why did you block that?" he asked in a tone the kitsune had not expected. It was soft, kind, almost. It was because not only did Naruto not kill either of them, but even saved Zabuza.

"Four reasons, really, but first, dispel your mist," commanded Naruto. Zabuza felt compelled to do so and let the mist fall. It revealed a small army of thugs. Maybe a little over one hundred. He continued speaking quietly. "The first reason is simple. A noble warrior should not fall to such scum. Zabuza, Gato was planning to betray you since the day you arrived. Help me destroy him and this army, and then we can discuss the other three reasons."

Zabuza nodded dumbly, picked up his half-sword, and grabbed Haku's shoulder, reassuringly. Naruko walked up behind them, scaring the crap out of them when she shouted out to Naruto, "You did it!" She ran up to him, jumping him and throwing her arms around his neck. "You didn't kill him!"

Suddenly, an evil laugh echoed across the bridge to where they were. "Well, not yet you didn't die. But you will." It was Gato.

Natsuki didn't much care for the man, but she cared even less for her mates getting hug time without her. Sure, she felt some of it through the link, but it wasn't the same. So, as much as to break up the couple as to get them focused, she yelled out, "Kill first, make out later. Got it?"

The couple broke apart, blushing a little, but still held hands. "Right!" said Naruto. "Let's go."

Now, the mercenaries were not expecting much from the group. There were four teenagers, a swordsman with only half a sword, and redheaded beauty who looked much too delicate to fight. They were, however, soon proven wrong. The boy was soon covered in devilish blue flames due to his Blazing Armor jutsu and was cutting them down in a dervish. The girls were a deadly combination as Naruko was causing a torrent of water to be brought up from the sea beneath the bridge and Haku was instantly turning it all into icy projectiles. Zabuza merely tore through his enemies. Even with just half a sword he was more than a match for these fighters. Weirdly enough, the sword seemed to be reforming as he continued fighting. Finally, Natsuki was doing her best to keep Tazuna safe, catching those around her on fire and incapacitating them with taijutsu. She may only be a chunin in strength, but none could match her experience of ages.

The ninja were winning, it seemed, but depression set in as fifty reinforcements arrived. Suddenly, roots appeared around the legs of those who had not yet reached the bridge and a seemingly endless barrage of kunai speared through them. After they impacted, they disappeared in puffs of smoke so that only five kunai remained. However, the damage was done.

They had waited at the house today, not feeling the upcoming battle the way their kitsune friends did. Twelve mercenaries had appeared midday and attempted to kill Tazuna's family, but the jounin and sannin were more than a match for the men, even for the two samurai of the group. After making sure Inari and Tsunami were safe, they took off to the bridge but found it covered in a solid mist. They wanted to help their group, but felt chakra flying everywhere and didn't want to make things worse by just jumping in.

The men sat in waiting until the fog eventually lifted. They saw Naruto make piece with the missing nin and start to face off against the mercenaries Gato had brought, but they were worried when they saw more men join the fight. Without speaking a word to the other, they both disappeared. About ten mercenaries had only a fraction of a second between being caught and being turned into pincushions to reflect on their sins.

In a flash of red and green, Yamato and Jiraiya arrived in the free for all. They would fight on the side of the missing nin for now, but would want an explanation later. This battle would not have been much of a problem for them normally. Yamato would use nature to destroy them or Jiraiya would use a summon. However, the bridge offered no plant life and may be destroyed if Jiraiya used heavy summons. Also, the adult nin had all just recently recovered or were still recovering from their last fight.

Though they fought bravely, the enemies had numbers and soon the nin were in a tight circle around Tazuna. Naruto didn't like how this was going. "Naru-chan! We need to do it!"

"Okay, Naruto! Make the field and I'll make the shield!" The other ninja had no clue what was going to happen, but knew it was their best chance of survival. Normally they would be fine with this crowd, but they were all tired and some still recovering. These young genin were their best chance for making it through without injury. They gaurded the teens as Naruto made endless hand signs and Naruko built up her chakra. This was quite a feat, even with their tails, for they had been burning through their chakra and these techniques really decimated reserves. Just as an unblocked sword came towards Naruko, their techniques were ready.

"Blinding Shield!" yelled Naruko, making a luminescent forcefield of sorts around them out of pure chakra, blocking the sword.

At the same time, Naruto yelled out "Shroud of Blades!" The air just outside of the field turned violent. For about a five yard radius, the air was turned into countless blades that targeted enemies at random and the pure chakra output slightly burned the men. However, the teens did not have the best control yet. Their techniques lasted only ten seconds before dissipating. They both fell to their knees, tails losing the very slight sheen that showed their use, exhausted.

Only one man was left, Gato. "Let me do it," Zabuza stated, taking his now nearly reformed sword and hefting it in the air.

The man backpedaled, running to get back on land and escape. However, an arrow embedded itself into the ground in front of him stopped him cold in his tracks. He looked up to see the villagers standing with various weapons in their hands, Inari at their front. "Now who's going to be made an example of?" he yelled, tears in his eyes at the thought of his father. Gato stayed still just a little too long, and, suddenly, was opened up in the back. Zabuza cut the man from tailbone to skull, though he spared the boy in front of him the sight of the gore by making sure Gato fell backwards, the cut not visible. It seemed part of his blood was being attracted to Zabuza's sword and, in fact, it was the iron in Gato's blood that finished reforming the sword.

His dying moment was an odd one, for Gato. 'What did I do wrong?' he thought. 'I started off small. I fought my way to power, to money. I fought for my dreams and just when I thought they were in reach-' "What did I do wrong?" he now said, barely croaking out his last words.

Jiraiya walked over to the quickly dying man and said, "If you can not figure it out on your own, then you truly deserve this." He formed three quick hand signs before spewing fire that consumed Zabuza's body and introduced the man to what he would now forever experience - in Hell.

Tazuna's family and the ninja were all sitting, wary of each other, around a fire at Tazuna's house. Wave had regained its courage and would soon gain international trade through the bridge. They planned to seize Gato's possessions in a day or two to become a major force in trade and revitalize their land. They would also use some of the funds the dead man had accumulated to repay the ninja and then some for the high ranked mission. However, the ninja still had to decide what path they would follow.

It was slightly uncomfortable around the fire. The men of the leaf sat near each other, separated by a little distance were the mist nin, then the kitsune, and then the bridge builder and family.

They stared into the fire until Haku asked. "What were the other three reasons?"

"Huh?" asked Jiraiya. He had missed this from his vantage point early on in the fight.

"Naruto said there were four reasons they did not kill us. The first was that being betrayed was a horrible way to go," explained Zabuza. "He said he'd tell us the rest later."

Naruto smiled a little. "The second," he started, was because Haku is a friend. We do not hurt friends." Haku smiled a little at the comment and shuffled her feet against the earth. "Third, I didn't want to fight you when you were holding back."

Zabuza started to protest, "I wasn't holding back. I was trying to-" but Naruto cut him off.

"You were holding back, and the reason why is tied to reason four, besides the fact that you were just newly recovered. Reason four, you are both part demon and I am the Demon King. I don't wish to hurt my subjects, and they feel me instinctually and wish to not hurt me as well."

Everyone except the kitsune were stumped. Demons? Natsuki laughed at their expressions. "Yes, you are part demon. Not bijuu, no. You don't have tails. But, demon blood runs in your veins. It gives Haku her ability and, Zabuza, it could give you unparalleled stealth if you tried for it. There is a reason, even if others have not recognized it, that you, Zabuza, are called the 'Demon of the Bloody Mist' and that you, Haku, usa a technique called 'Demonic Ice Mirrors.'"

Zabuza was floored by this idea. It was truly odd. "Plus," added Natsuki slyly, "it's hard to cut down young love like you two have." Zabuza and Haku blushed a little - well, Haku blushed a lot - sputtering out denial, but Natuski just laughed. "Don't defend yourself. You both feel the same way and it's only natural. Demons feel the need to mate with other demons over humans."

Jiraiya interrupted. "Well this is all well and good, but Zabuza is an A-rank missing nin and Haku is either a strong genin like you two or even a chunin. We'll get in trouble if we just let you escape."

"Then don't let them escape. Let's just bring them back with us. Jiji is sure to be glad to get another strong ninja or two for the Leaf, and there's no way he'd deny us," said Naruko, bringing her mate towards her as both demonstrated the puppy dog pout they would use to get their way.

Even Yamato was affected. "Come on, Jiraiya. We need a third to round out the team anyways and I'm sure the Hokage will feel more secure that a new nin is on a team where both a jounin and sannin can keep tags on her." Jiraiya had been hesitant, but he guessed it was a good idea.

He sighed, put his hands on his hips, and shook his head slightly. Another cute girl that he couldn't spy on without a death wish and he had to go home with this group? But he couldn't deny Naruto and Naruko their wish. As their grandfather, he should at least support their choice in friends if there was no reason not to. "Fine," he said at last. "I'll send a messenger toad to the Hokage about this and expressing your approval, Naruto and Naruko. We'll just have to see how it goes." The blondes jumped in the air and high-fived. Haku cracked a smile, as did Zabuza. Maybe there was hope for two missing nin in this world.

The moment, however, was ruined by a long yawn by Inari that told the group it was long past bed time. They broke up, spirits raised. The Konoha group stayed inside while the Mist nin set up camp on Tazuna's property in standard camping gear. When Naruto woke in the morning

As the group was traveling through the trees, Naruto couldn't help but reflect. The last three weeks had been rather eventful. They had looted all Gato had, spreading his wealth to those who needed. Tazuna had even managed to pick up some of the man's legal trade operations, though he was still working on enlarging the trade network. Though, trade would hardly be an issue now. The bridge had just been finished the prior day and had, apparently, been named for them.

The finishing of the bridge was a momentous occasion. The entire town had turned out and the ninja, Mist nin included, had been the guests of honor. It was a date for the Kitsune, a day of relaxation for Yamato, a day of peeping at girls for Jiraiya (as all other days were too), and a new experience for the Mist nin. They felt, for the first time, accepted by others for who they were and not for what they could do. If was, well, nice. They had felt a little awkward at first. After all, their relationship was in the open now and they hadn't had much alone time to discuss it. However, when the others left to have fun, Haku broke the silence by simply taking Zabuza's hand in her own, a slight blush appearing on her face. He smiled and led her off to see the town. He enjoyed his shy, little Haku in her beautiful, modest kimono.

Naruto, on the other hand, was enjoying two girls who were a little less reserved, one (Natsuki) practically bouncing as they walked along. They clung to him and his tails guarded them both. They had a fun time playing games, talking, stuffing themselves, and, more than anything else, just being able to be with each other without the pressures of their normal ninja lives.

At the end of the night, they all met together for a large dinner, compliments of Gato. The kitsunes laughed and talked with everyone, but especially the mist nin, having become fast friends during the building of the bridge. At the end, Tazuna stood up to make an announcement. He christened the bridge in the the ninjas honor, calling it the Great Kitsune Bridge. It would result in a dramatic transformation, he said, for the town's transition from frail to strong. He claimed that their hard work would pay off and they would become a great force in this world, just like the brave ninja before them would. It had been a great night and, apparently, he had finally stopped releasing his pheromones after the fight with Zabuza. It seemed that they had only been there because he had needed to prove his dominance and had succeeded.

The goodbye had been sad, Inari saying good bye to his new older brother, Naruto, and older sister, Naruko. But it had been happy. They knew that they would one day return to see them. That's why the tears had not left their eyes, but merely glistened before being lost in the wind. As they left, they had felt something odd. The chakra that Naruto had bequeathed to Inari seemed to resonate with part of his own. It was like they were connected.

Naruto was broken from his reverie when Naruko squeezed the hand she was holding. Their free hands had been practicing one handed seals. He saw Konoha in the distance. He squeezed her hand back, and they all put on a burst of speed. Some were eager to return home, and others merely wanted to know what home might be. Regardless, they were drawn to the Spirit of Fire, to the Village Hidden in the Leaves. And closer to the heartbreak that was soon to come.

**New arc starts next chapter. Yet again, I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination.**

**Also, advertising here that I Beta. Good night, beautiful and not so beautiful people of the internet.**

**And yes, after taking my reviews into consideration, I ever so very slightly edited this chapter.**


	10. New People

**First off, I own nothing except my version of Naruko and maybe a jutsu or two.**

**I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. Speaking of which, I would like to thank my reviewers. Thank you to Shadow's Blades, Tisaku, figglewiggle24, Deathwatch Razgriz, Akuma-Heika, Dregus, and renegadeofficer89.**

**Some people were concerned about the strength of my characters in the last chapter. That is fine, and here is all I will say. Their best techniques either would destroy the bridge, endanger Tazuna, or were not available in Yamato's case. Also, most of them were injured, a few tired, and I believe I never said life threatening, only trying to avoid injury. If you still don't like it, I won't mess with what is written further. Please enjoy or don't. That's up to you. Though, if you don't enjoy it, I do encourage you to check out some of the great fics out on this site rather than my rather ramshackle story.**

**New People**

Yet another few weeks had passed in the village, and Naruto thought they had been incredibly dull. Sure, it was fun that Haku had joined them and training was always good, but it was always just the same old same old. They would get up, train, do a D-rank, train, eat, train, and hang out with friends at night. And maybe train before bed. Everyone healed up and Zabuza was put on a temporary hiatus to prove his loyalty to the Leaf. They continued to learn new jutsu and learned to work as a team, being able to lean on each other though they had just known each other for a few months. It was unfortunate that Haku couldn't use shadow clones to train like they could, but she was incredibly intelligent and cunning, able to make up some of the difference through sheer willpower. They all worked hard though, especially on taijutsu, to be the best they could be.

Their training, however, was not being put to good use, they felt. They had repaired more structures than they knew could be broken, helped people with more chores than they knew Konoha had to offer, and had caught that damn cat Tora so many times she pretty much came to them readily now. Well, at least once she felt their tails in use and knew running was futile. And now, they were ready for something more.

At night they managed to stave off that feeling some. They would hang out with the other rookies and even their sensei. Haku had been generally accepted by the group, Ino and Sakura taking her and helping her find her feminine side, something she had missed due to growing up only with Zabuza ever since she was a child. Everything was pretty cool with them, well, Sasuke was still kinda a jerk but Sasuke didn't much hang out with them and they didn't much mind that themselves. If they were to be honest, they really didn't like him and if he were to be honest with them, he couldn't stand them. They released a feel to his newly awaken eyes that just reeked of power, and he couldn't stand someone stronger than him at his same age. It just wasn't allowed.

Some of the best times were when just the three kitsunes spent evenings together. Sometimes it would be a picnic, or a walk through the woods, staring at the moon as it lay fresh in the sky. Anko had shown them the Forest of Death and it had quickly become an ideal spot for both training and relaxing. Parts of the forest were scary. It was dark and threatening. Survival was brutal and even the trees were foreboding. But they were ancient testimonies to a time long passed, and they were beautiful. The way moonlight shown down on the trunks and life pulsed from root to root was, more than anything else, poetic. Naruko understood the forest the best. They had actually befriended many of the beasts of the forest and, although there was the obvious language barrier, something about their instincts allowed basic communication. They were, after all, humans, beasts, and demons all at once.

One morning, however, things changed. They did their normal routine of training but, when they reported to the Hokage tower, they were told there were no missions that day. The genin snuck away from their sensei to enjoy their free day, maybe find their friends, when their enhanced senses picked up the sounds of a small scuffle two streets away. It seemed someone, a boy, was calling for help. Without a word to each other, they took off. The voice wasn't clear, but it was familiar. No one would be oppressed like they had been, and especially not if it was one of their precious people.

It had all just started a couple of minutes ago, really. He had just been walking down the street with his sister to his hotel when some runt came around a corner and smacked into him. Now, Kankuro was ticked. You might not have guessed it, but this man was intensely prideful. He wore a black jumpsuit with what looked like cat ears in the suit and some form of odd face paint. In reality, he was actually in a bundle on his puppet's back and when the boy knocked the puppet down, it had fallen on him! No one made a fool of him! Well, at least not this runt.

He picked the runt up by the neck, not quite strangling him, and started going off on him. "You do know that running into a ninja is not a good idea, don't you?"

The boy looked at this figure before him, and felt fear. There wasn't a coldness in the voice, but rather a smugness that told him this boy wouldn't think before he acted. "I didn't mean to!"

"It doesn't matter," said Kankuro, tightening his grip just a little. "Just as accidents don't matter on the battlefield."

"Don't hurt him too badly, Kankuro," said Temari beside him. She wasn't quite a tomboy and was certainty a strong kunoichi. "We don't want an incident and you don't want his anger." The boy's friends were protesting now, trying to get their buddy off the hook.

"You wouldn't hurt me," said Konohamaru. "I'm the grandson of the Hokage."

Kankuro smirked. "Then this is just more fun." He went to truly strangle the boy now, and the boy started yelling for help. No matter, he thought. Until, at least, he felt a kunai near his puppet's neck. It wouldn't do to reveal his ruse now. He slowly turned to see three ninja of the Leaf right there.

Now, Naruto was pissed and Naruko outraged. Konohamaru had become nearly a sibling to them. The last thing they wanted was him to be hurt. And they would kill to protect him. The boy in front of them slowly backed up after setting Konohamaru down. "I don't want a fight," he claimed. He turned slowly to see a brunette and two blondes that could almost be siblings, though they had very weird traits. Tails, whiskers, and even fox ears. What the fuck? The almost looked like- No, they couldn't be like his brother when he was nearly possessed.

Now, they were ready to give this boy and girl a chance at redemption, but then they heard a new voice. "Well you damn well have one." It was the Uchiha, sitting in a tree, shuriken in hand and ready to throw. Dang it, he was bound to throw this out of proportion.

"Yet, I believe we can save this for later this week." An odd boy with red hair, black lined eyes, and a gourd on his back appeared behind Sasuke, catching him off guard and causing the Sharingan boy to fall from the tree.

Gaara had identified this as a source of strong chakra, and had assumed the raven-headed boy had been the source. Now, he knew it was not true. These three in front of him were the source of the power. The black haired girl was only a small threat, but the blondes were truly frightening. The voice in his head was screaming but, for possibly the first time, it was in fright and not bloodlust. And then, there was something more, something dominating, almost.

"Who are you?" asked Haku, quietly.

"I believe it may be impolite to ask our names before you say your own," said Gaara. He wanted information.

"Why, you-" Sasuke said as he started to lunge for the boy, only to have Naruto stop him with a single restraining hand on his shoulder. Naruko sensed Naruto was giving off pheromones again, a sure sign that he was asserting dominance and a sure sign that she would go to bed horny and unsatisfied again tonight. Sure, they had done a little, petting, so to speak, but it wasn't enough for her. Regardless, back to the situation at hand.

"My name is Naruto, my friend's name is Haku, my mate's name," he said while stressing that Naruko was his and his only, "is Naruko, and this annoyance, "he continued, staring at the form he was holding back, "is Sasuke." He forced a little chakra through his fingers and the boy slumped to the ground, weak but still awake and overall fine. "Now, I truly am wondering your names."

The ginger looked down at them, feeling some kind of obligation to answer this man welling up inside of his head, threatening to burst through the tattoo on his forehead that read "Love." Damn it, he felt he couldn't refuse. "I am Gaara, the girl in purple is Temari, and the confused boy in black is Kankuro. We are the Kazekage's children, and are here for the chunin exams."

Temari and Kankuro stared at Naruto open mouthed. He had gotten Gaara to speak a full sentence with only minor bloodlust, answer a direct question, give extra information, and even refer to them as a group. What the hell was going on?

The Leaf ninja looked at him warily, only the kitsune group having known about the exams beforehand. "Very well. In that case, the three of us," Naruko said, gesturing at her team with a smile on her face, "will see you in two days' time. We look forward to the competition." Naruto's pheromones surged for a second and a tail let off a very faint glow due to near activation.

Gaara took a step back and out of the tree, away from this monster. "Yes, I believe we will, Naruto-sama and Naruko-sama. Come, brother, sister, we must be away and to our room." He walked slowly away, cautious still. His siblings followed him, still floored by Naruto and how Gaara had called them family. This day was not a normal one.

As they turned the corner, Naruto turned to face Konohamaru and make sure he was alright. "Nothing hurt, right, Konohamaru?"

The boy gave a huge grin and scratched the back of his head, much like Naruto. He was brunette and wore two distinguishing fashion choices, a ridiculously long scarf around his neck and goggles, Naruto's old ones in fact, on his forehead. His counterparts, Moegi and Udon, had goggles as well. Moegi was a kind orange haired girl and Udon was a smart, yet near narcoleptic dark haired boy. They were all just academy students. "Yeah, boss, I'm fine." His pride was hurt a little, but it was nothing big.

"Thanks, boss," said Moegi and Udon just nodded.

Naruto rubbed Konohamaru's head with one hand familiarly, mussing up his hair, and said, "You guys are always welcome." He too gave one of his famous smiles and then stood up. "Well, I guess we'll see you later." Naruko smiled too, a gentler smile, due to both her care for the kid and Naruto's emotions coming through the link. Naruto turned around to leave but then stopped, having just remembered something. "Sasuke," he said, his voice losing it's warmth and geniality, "if you're going to fight him, or us, or become a chunin, you'll want to talk to Kakashi. Ask him about the exams." Now Naruko frowned at the edge in his voice, something so blatantly cold that Haku almost shivered in excitement. She loved the chill of ice. They walked off while Sasuke just stared after them. They never even noticed that the plants in Naruko's path grayed and died while she was in her sour mood.

'What the fuck is going on?' Sasuke thought. 'He was so fast that I didn't sense him coming. Naruto too! That dead last loser actually incapacitated me! And with just pure chakra to a pressure point!' Sasuke walked slowly to training ground seven, those thoughts bouncing around in his head. 'And then, somehow, Naruto and that Naruko girl scared him off.' "I just don't get it," he said out loud.

"Get what, Sasuke?" Sakura asked. The raven haired boy hadn't even realized that he had reached the training ground, but apparently he had.

He just gave a "Hmmph," before turning to see Kakashi there. The man had been watching Sai and Sakura "train." In reality, they had just been arguing again. "Kakashi," said Sasuke, not bothering with any form of respectful honorific, "Naruto mentioned some sort of exams. Do you know what he was talking about?"

Kakashi sighed behind his mask. He had hoped they wouldn't learn until after it was too late. You see, Sasuke was strong and smart enough for the test, Sakura smart enough, and Sai bordered on both, though Kakashi had a sinking suspicion that Sai was hiding something. Sasuke had so much potential, as Sakura did too. They just hadn't reached it yet and he didn't want his team to die, but maybe they stood a chance now that Sasuke had his Sharingan and the girls would follow his orders without thought. Well, at least he'd give them the choice. "There will be a chunin selection exam three days from now. If you wish to participate, show up at the academy no later than seven in the morning and go to room 303. This is an individual decision, so don't let others pressure you. Training will still be held as usual, but is optional and up to you. Missions will not be given until the test is over. Beware, however, for death is quite a common visitor to these exams, and I don't want any of you to lie down for the big sleep so early in life." He sighed again. "And now, with that in mind, let's do some actual training." And so they did.

True to his word, the exam started no later than seven. Team twelve had been one of the first to arrive, dropped off by their sensei and wished luck around six thirty, and had walked in to the building. They noticed the genjutsu set up by Kotetsu and Izumo on door 203 that made it look like 303 and just smiled. They took the initiative to strengthen the illusion and make the stairs to the third floor "vanish" as well. Naruto may not have been extremely good with genjutsu, but Haku and Naruko were. In fact, Naruko truly had illusionary powers Natsuki was proud of. They then sat in room 303, waiting for others to arrive.

Naruto lay on his back while Naruko stroked his whiskers, peacefully flirting just a little, and Haku sat nearby, subconsciously making small figurines out of ice as a way to practice. Her abilities had skyrocketed ever since Natsuki-sama had showed her how to bring out some of her demonic chakra in her normal jutsu.

Soon, the Sand trio arrived, just using an open window and avoiding the genjutsu altogether. There was a sort of respectful silence between the two groups that ended when Gaara walked over to Naruto and Naruko. "Sorry," he said respectfully. And so the two teams treated each other, if not as friends, at least as allies.

Team nine, a genin team that had been made last year, soon entered. Lee had put on a performance of being prevented from entering the fake room 303 so others would be discouraged and then Neji had used his Byakugan to find the stairs before they discreetly snuck upstairs. Other teams followed after, teams eight, ten, eleven, Sound, Grass, Rock, Cloud, and others all slowly arrived. There were still more than the kitsune had wanted, but less than there would have been otherwise.

Down stairs, Kotetsu and Izumo let loose the genjutsu and Kotetsu simply said, "You have fifteen seconds to get to the right room before you fail." They smiled as the groups turned around, jutsu flying and energy swelling to their running muscles.

Naruto noticed his illusion was dispelled and turned towards the open doorway. Through it, he saw a stampede of genin with Sasuke Uchiha leading the way and dragging his teammates with him. Well, at least he kinda thought of his team when running. He arrived in the room, two other squads following and several individuals as well. Then, a shield of energy appeared in the door frame, blocking the others from entry. Kotetsu shunshined into the hallway to tell those present they had failed in both genjutsu and speed, and that they were to leave. Izumo appeared inside the class, telling those who had arrived as individuals that they had failed genjutsu and teamwork, and that they were to leave as well. There were many groans and yells of protest, but a little killing intent solved the problem as the failures left the test.

The rookie Leaf teams stood together, the Sand team joining them, with Guy's squad nine nearby but not talking to the rookies. However, the rookies were making quite a racket and other squads, Sound included, were glaring daggers towards them.

Naruto had been talking with team ten about how he was worried for them. It was a kind tone he used, and Choji (an Akimichi that looked like a bowling ball and whose punches felt like them) and Shikimaru (a Nara that was quite lazy and quite a genius) understood his logic. Ino (a Yamanaka mind-walker with a huge mouth and little strength with which to back it up), however, would not stand for it.

"Just because you have those dumb tails you feel superior, don't you?" She did know it wasn't the case, but knew it was, for some reason, their emotionally weak spot. "I bet that without those stupid things you're just-" she cut off, however, when each kitsune had one tail start to shine and glisten with extremely luscious hair now luminescent and expelling an aura. Gaara, who had just been quiet and avoiding making an ass of himself, now felt an obligation to protect Naruto. He found his sand forming a kunai and Haku made senbon. Before anything happened, though, a white haired boy in a purple outfit and glasses stepped between them, his Leaf headband glinting in the fluorescent lighting.

"Come on, guys. You're drawing attention, and attention is not something you want." They looked at him with only minor trust, though some of the kunoichi were now aware and afraid of the glares they were receiving. Their male counterparts were either too brave, stupid, or both to worry. "I'm not sure I've properly introduced myself," he continued. "I'm Kabuto, a Leaf genin like most of you guys, and this time I'm determined to become a chunin."

Naruto still wasn't sure he could trust this Kabuto. In fact, he got a downright feeling of absolute distrust form the boy. Still, his curiosity got the best of him. His tails stopped generating chakra, as did Naruko's, and Gaara and Haku let their techniques slip. "So this is your second time taking the exams?" Naruko asked.

The boy gave an embarrassed little grin at that. "Well, not exactly. It's actually my seventh." Sasuke hmmphed and looked away, instantly discrediting the boy as a failure. As if to save face, he quickly continued on. "WIth my experience, I've studied on all of the genin here so I could do better this time. I've got information on each of these ninja on cards I've developed." Now Sasuke was a little more interested.

"What do you have on him?" he asked, pointing towards Gaara.

Kabuto opened the pack he kept the cards in and looked through to find Gaara's. It says here that Gaara no Subaku is son of the Kazekage, holds a masterful control over sand, has been on few D-ranks, several C-ranks, and even multiple B-ranks, sometimes by himself. He has never even been so much as scratched during his missions."

Gaara, surprised by the information's accuracy, wondered if he could find out about his new friend. "What about Naruto and Naruko Uzumaki?" he asked, shocking the other genin as he had no spoken since they arrived. Also, Naruto may have improved, but why would someone who gave off such an aura care about the deadlast?

Regardless, Kabuto dug through for the card and pulled it up. "Naruto Uzumaki, heritage unknown, the village pariah of the Leaf. He is said to have control over immense power through the use of tails, and love both fire and wind. He has been on many D-ranks, an A-rank, and an S-rank mission. His speed is considerable, kenjutsu is easily that of a jounin, and taijutsu is rather impressive." As the other teams tried to figure out the missions, Kabuto looked through for Naruko's card. The mission and Wave had become A-rank, and his destruction of Mizuki had been S-rank as it protected the Leaf's secret jutsu and stopped a traitor of a much higher rank than Naruto. Tenten, who was just within hearing range, marveled that Naruto was supposedly so good with weapons. It was something she prided herself on.

"Naruko Uzumaki, heritage unknown, girlfriend of Naruto Uzumaki. She is said to have a nearly equal power and utilize both earth and water. Her missions are the same, speed just barely less, and uses a staff in battle. She seems to enjoy large, sweeping, area affecting jutsu." Gaara, nodded quietly, appraising his new friends.

Sakura, however, had just noticed something. Although she recognized most of the hitai-ate's origins, she saw one with a musical note. She stared at the group in slight shock. They were relatively threatening with gray and black camouflage and purple outfits, each giving off a very threatening aura. "Kabuto-san," she started, "who are they?" She pointed to the group.

He looked over to the group to see who she was talking about, but just scoffed and smirked as he turned back. "They are from the village hidden in the sound, Otogakure. It is a minor village, and they probably aren't much of a threat." Unnoticed by most of the Konoha nin, one of the Oto nin had been sneaking through the crowd at the mention of his group. When he was called weak, he charged forward, attempting to strike Kabuto down.

Naruto had, however, seen it coming. He stretched his arm out in a mock yawn, just in time to clothesline the boy. The Oto nin hit him hard, feet flying from underneath him as he fell on his back in the middle of the Leaf genin. "Oh, sorry Oto-san," said Naruto with what sounded like a very apologetic voice while staring at his victim. The boy had white hair, but was wrapped up completely like a mummy. He had weird braces on his arms that hummed with chakra. Naruto continued to look at the mummy, expecting some form of response. The boy, however, just lay still on his back, staring upwards, wondering how he hadn't seen it coming. And then he saw cold those eyes, staring back at him in disgust. It was Kabuto! He had failed to damage Kabuto as had been planned.

"Oto-san?" asked Naruko, wondering if the boy was alright. Some of the group had noticed him stiffen, though they had no idea it was in fear of Kabuto.

"I'm sorry," he said briskly well standing up. Only Shikimaru noticed it was said mainly to Kabuto. "Please do not talk poorly of my village, however." This was said with just a little more edge in his voice.

Haku nodded. "I'm sorry we offended you." The boy ignored her as he walked back to his group, his team mates face palming at his apparent stupidity. Naruto and Naruko just wondered why he had planned on attacking Kabuto for such a stupid insult. Pride issue, maybe?

However, before they could figure it out, a large man wearing a black bandana and black trench coat appeared before them. He yelled at the "maggots" to sit down in their pre-named seat, noting with satisfaction that only two-thirds of the teams that had signed up made it to the room. He proceeded to introduce himself as the Leaf's head of interrogation and torture, Ibiki Morino. He passed out a test, warning that cheating was not tolerated and three strikes was punished by removal from the room and test for the cheater and his entire team. They were given forty-five minutes for the first nine questions and were told the last question would take fifteen minutes to complete.

The questions ended up being extremely difficult, near impossible to solve. Some of the teams ended up figuring out that cheating was, in fact, the point of the test. It was all about information gathering and many succeeded. Neji and Hinata used the Byakugan, Lee was a mere flash as he looked at his neighbors, and Tenten used reflections from various planted weapons. Kiba used Akamaru, Shino his bugs, Shikamaru and Sakura their intelligence, and Ino her mind control. She also helped Chouji. Sasuke used his Sharingan, Haku her ice mirrors, Gaara his sand, and Naruto and Naruko helped each other through their mental link. Temari took answers from Gaara, Kankuro used his secret surprise for later, and Sai was writing answers down easily. It was quite odd, as these questions were nearly impossible to answer and only a few chunin disguised as genin wrote down the correct answers to copy off of. It was almost as if he had been told the questions and answers beforehand. Odd, huh?

Forty-five minutes had passed and four teams had failed. One from Kumo, two from Iwa, and one veteran team from the Leaf. Now Ibiki interrupted them. "Now, put your papers down. Regardless of your methods or accuracy, you have passed the first part of the test. Next, however, is the hard part." Many of those remaining blanched as he removed his bandana to reveal multiple, gruesome scars. "As a ninja, you will be forced to make hard decisions, and you will be given one now. Leave without taking the tenth question and receive no punishment, or take the last question. If you take it and pass, you move on. If you fail, you will never be allowed to become a chunin."

This scared many of those present as they had never realized their grand dreams for the future could come to a screeching halt like this. One or two teams stood up and left, chickening out. By the time it was over, many less teams remained. Six Leaf teams, the sound team, the sand team, two mist teams, one waterfall team, two cloud teams, one grass team, and two rock teams. Ibiki smiled, knowing that this had potential to be fun. "You all pass." Many of the genin were floored by this, but Naruto and Naruko just smiled as they had seen it coming. "Your last question was one of your resolve, and you have all succeeded. Remember, sometimes the best action is merely standing forward and taking the only action available to you. You can't always back down." His smile dimmed. "And if you don't, well, you may lose someone important to you." It seemed he was reliving the past. He pulled off the bandana that was wrapped around his head and exposed a myriad of scars and burns that were far beyond healing. "You will be forced farther than you think you can go, but what matters is that you go after it anyway. You will have to make decisions and stick by them. That is what you have done today."

In just a second, though, there was a flash of an explosion all the windows of the room were broken. As the light subsided, it revealed Naruto, Naruko, and Haku subduing their supposed attacker. Until, Naruko saw the banner behind them, tapped her teammates on the shoulder, and they all stepped back, a tad embarrassed. It seemed that this woman was the next proctor. The banner simply said "Anko Mitarashi! Badass kunoichi and proctor extreme!"

She looked at the people that had caught her and smiled. Catching a jounin off gaurd was difficult. "Come on maggots! I am the proctor for your next exam and will meet you all at training ground 44." She turned around to leave but, as if on second thought, threw a perverted glance back to Naruto. "I hope you don't die, foxy-kun." Then she jumped out the window as Naruko was seething. No one hit on her man.

She jumped after the woman in a rage, followed by Naruto who was trying to calm her, the Sand team as they liked their new friends, the rest of the group, and then Haku who was keeping her distance from her teammates, both loving them like siblings and being extremely embarrassed by them.

**Yet again, I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination.**

**Also, advertising here. First, I Beta. Secondly, I will soon release the first chapter of another fic. Good night, beautiful and not so beautiful people of the internet. Third, yes, I did change this chapter. I somehow deluded myself into a mistake in continuity which has now been fixed. Good night, beautiful and not so beautiful people of the interwebs.**


	11. A Test

**First off, I own nothing except my version of Naruko and maybe a jutsu or two.**

**I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. Speaking of which, I would like to thank my reviewers. Thank you to ultimatemh, HikariNiwa, 13,** **Taeniaea, Kitsune135, ZeroLink21, Shadow's Blades, Aidas, Zaralann, WitchieKit, Drew S, and Fierce Dities Link. Special thanks goes out to Arina Sugar Baby for her many words of input and commendation.**

**I do apologize for the delay, but scholarships, Academic Decathlon, AP Classes, work, and all the rest kinda eat up my time. Also, if anyone's looking for another good read I personally enjoy Hope of the Senju Clan and would recommend that. I'm actually working on betareading that story, but its slow going. With that, let's go.**

**A Test**

At this point in the exams, the jounin sensei were getting excited word had just come to them of who had passed the first exam. Of course, Jiraiya being Jiraiya and already drunk, he was the loudest supporter of any squad there, as Gai was oddly absent. They were yelling the moment they heard their teams passed while Yamato just sweatdropped at his excitable friend, Kurenai smiled at the news, Asuma smirked at those he had made bets with, and Kakashi just "hmphed" before returning to reading his book. Why would he care? The Sand and Sound jounin stood with a stoic silence and many other jounin just followed their example.

Just as they were starting to die down, Ibiki continued talking as he could now be heard over the crowd again. "It has come to our attention that a group this small could be decimated by our standard next test, so we're going to change it up a little. More people will pass but, just as likely, more people will just outright die."

This piqued the interest of most of the senseis except for Sand, Sound, and Special Assault Team 12. They had no doubt in their students' abilities. As Ibiki explained to the jounin, Anko explained to the genin. Damn, she hated seniority.

She had just arrived at a gate to training ground 44, the Forest of Death as the locals called it. It was absolutely gigantic, just outside the village walls, and constantly monitored for fair play in these tests. However, it was still hard to see everything that occurred inside as this arena was dense, dark, and deadly. Every year a team would be lost inside and not found until a week later, often merely scraps remaining from their brutal massacre at the hands of the beasts inside.

The snake mistress had arrived at the maze nearly five minutes ago and was just waiting for the stragglers of the genin group to catch up. When they finally did, well, most of them did at least, she started. With a grand gesture to the training ground behind her she remarked with something that sounded damn near like affection in her voice, "And this, my fresh meat, is what we in Konoha like to call the Forest of Death." She waited a second for the more squeamish genin still present to receive the full effect of her little statement. She noticed this had a good impact as many of them, especially those kunoichi who were borderline fangirl material, stared at the foreboding dark foliage, listening to the sounds of beasts within.

And then she noticed Naruto. He was just making a joke with the girls on his team, Haku laughing and Naruko snuggled up against him, tails intertwined in a display of affection. Anko knew that they were familiar with her because of dating their jounin sensei and all, but still. You'd really expect that a psychopathic blood-loving snake-using jounin would bother them. She decided to tease him for, all though she had no romantic attraction to him, she still knew how to get the pure boy all hot and bothered. Seemingly on a whim she threw a kunai at him.

One of his tails blocked him and he went on the defensive, but it was too slow as Anko plucked the blade as it fell to the ground, cut his cheek shallowly with the blade, and appeared behind him with her breasts pressed firmly against his back. "Come on, foxy-kun, I'm trying to explain a test here." She slowly licked the drop of blood that stained her kunai. "You know, it's the sweet ones like you that get massacred in there that really make this fun."

Naruto just smiled, the cut almost already healed. "It's nice to see you too Anko-chan!" She knew the boy was embarrassed, the slight blush on his face betraying him though he tried to suppress it and turn the tables on her. "Why I haven't seen you so happy since Yamato-sensei said that you two spent the -" he found his words cut off as one of Naruko's tails slapped across his mouth, and Anko's free hand joined it. Naruko really didn't want this to be a harder test than necessary all because Naruto had ruined it for them. And Anko didn't need her sex life discussed in front of genin from the four corners of the Earth.

She quickly used shunshin to appear where she was prior, though a little flustered from what was already said. "Anyway, we're going to give each of you a competitor's scroll. They are all identical. Throughout the forest will be jounin from the Hidden Leaf who will stand outside testing areas. If you take their challenges and pass, you will find yourself earning a testing scroll. However, if you fail one of their tests, they will take your competitor's scroll. If you already have a testing scroll and need a competitor's scroll after beating a test, and they have one confiscated from someone who has failed a test, then you may ask for that instead. Stealing is encouraged from both each other and, if you think you can, from the jounin as each jounin will only have one testing scroll on them and earning extra scrolls will greatly harm other teams. Each team will need at least one competitor and one testing scroll at the end of four days. If you have both scrolls and are at the complex in the center of the forest by the end of four days, your entire team intact, then you pass this section of the test. Any questions?" she asked in a cheery voice while wearing a wide smile. Roughly ten hands were raised.

"Good then! Because your little blonde friend here," she gestured to Naruto, "failed to listen earlier, I'll fail to answer your questions. I was even supposed to give you a hint as to where the tests were, but now I'll just leave you to the massive beasts of the forest. Go through the tent, sign the waivers there, and pick up your scroll. They'll tell you what gate to begin at and when you hear the whistle blow, just remember that it's only four days. You might survive that long." She finished with an absolutely ridiculously huge smile and a thumbs up. Some genin shot her death glares and others did the same to Naruto for losing them a clue. The demon team and sand team, however, merely smirked as they realized the clue had been let loose anyway. The jounin would be where the strongest beasts in the forest were.

The teams chatted and made small talk while other teams went before them and, all too soon for their tastes, split up to go to their gates and wait for the test to begin. As the buzzer sounded, they all ran into the forest. Konoha's trackers went in with senses blazing and bugs swarming, the kitsune with tons of shadow clones, Sai with ink animals raging, and Gaara with sand drifting in the wind. They were all ready to go.

However, some of the jounin were confused by Ibiki's explanation. "Why will less teams pass this way than usual, Ibiki-senpai?" asked a curious Kurenai.

Ibiki gave a slightly sadistic smile before answering in a gruff voice. "Normally, they merely have to get a specific type of scroll from other genin teams, resulting in a little less than half of the teams passing. This time around, up to seventy-five percent of the teams could pass with the amount of jounin tests there are. However, when teams that have failed tests target teams that have competitor scrolls or teams that are weak from passing tests, our models and estimations show only one third of the teams that enter should pass and only two thirds live. There is always the chance that more will pass and much less die, but our statistical analysis does not support such events occurring."

"True," said Kurenai, lost in thought, "but don't the specific competitors contribute to the data as well? Weaker or stronger teams would definitely sway the chances of winning and losing."

Here Ibiki gave a monstrous grin. "You are absolutely right; individual strengths of ninja on teams are huge. For instance, both of Sasuke's team members are weaker and may slow the Uchiha down. This year is a grand year with the participants present, after all. We have the last loyal Uchiha, three so-called 'demons,'" here Baki payed attention, believing Gaara had been mentioned. A dark skinned man with several swords on his back who had been very quiet so far also seemed to perk up. His team had entered and he was curious if they knew about one of his female students. Ibiki, however, just continued the list, "two jinchuriki, poison specialists, genjutsu specialists, multiple weapons 'masters,' several highly skilled trackers, and also the sound team that seems to be extremely unique." Now both Baki and Bee were highly confused as the "demons" mentioned were not their students and the jinchuriki were. Perhaps "demon" was just a nickname for a squad? "At the end of such a high competition year, there will no doubt be uncounted for fluctuation in our models."

The jounin looked forward to the results of this competition, some with pride at their mentioned students and some with worry. Kurenai in particular was worried. One could easily see her concern in the way that she grabbed for a bottle of sake in the jounin lounge despite her normal distaste for the drink. Even more surprising was how she sat next to Asuma, not even trying to keep their "secret" relationship a secret as she leaned against the man for comfort. She knew that her team was strong, but she worried about their mentalities. Hinata may be too hesitant, Kiba too impulsive, or Shino too slow to act while trying to come up with a logical game plan. She worried for her students, unsure if they would be able to stand up against jinchuriki, and knew their only advantage in the test would be if they used their amazing senses to avoid the worst dangers in the forest. She needn't have worried.

As a matter of fact, it had been a fairly easy beginning for them. Kiba's keen senses pointed them in the direction of a jounin fairly easily, Shino pinpointed the location with his kikaichu, and Hinata used her Byakugan to help avoid the worst animals. It seemed to them that they were traveling directly into a nest as a great number of huge falcons were in the area, constantly forcing them to turn back and find new paths to avoid fights with the huge birds.

They eventually got to the forest floor where a small shelter was set up and jounin was reading a book inside. They got his attention and the man smiled, happy that he had been found so quickly and proud of the Konoha genin. "I must admit, it is very impressive that you found me so quickly. Whatever skills you used to do so will be very useful to you in my test." Kiba smirked, glad they happened upon a good test for them, while Hinata smiled gently and Shino stayed unreadable. "As I'm sure you have noticed, we are near the middle of the Great Falcon's nest. The Fire Lord is interested in having one in the capitol's zoo, so we would like you to retrieve an egg to be raised for such purposes. Return within one day to succeed, should you choose to accept."

"We accept!" Kiba snarled out, throwing his competitor's scroll to the jounin as collateral. Shino shivered a little, his bugs nervous about the birds, but figured this would be as good of a test as any. They left the tent immediately and slowly combed the area for the nest, looking higher and higher in the gigantic trees. At one point, Kiba thought he sensed something extremely dangerous in a tree they passed, but was unable to find it once the point was in sight. They shrugged it off and continued climbing until they reached the top branches of one of the tallest trees. It was there that they saw a marvelous sight: a female Great Falcon.

You see, the males of the species were large, with about a thirteen foot wingspan and six feet from the head to the tail, a beak about one foot long itself with a strength that put a vice grip to shame. It had a body covered in grey plumage that glittered in the sun and had talons that were as long as scimitars and sharp as razors. They were formidable. Now, however, the female was larger with a sixteen foot wingspan, seven foot length, a stronger and sharper beak, tougher talons, and a plumage hat blended in with it's surroundings. It was deadly.

As Kiba was getting pumped up for the fight ahead and Hinata was starting to feel a tad intimidated, Shino called them together to discuss a plan. This might be a challenge, after all. After they had it all planned out, they waited for the sunset and impending sunrise in the morning. They would have to sleep in the branches tonight.

Back in the jounin lounge, Baki merely scoffed. He had to laugh at how this female sensei of the Leaf had entered a team while doubting their abilities. What foolishness. He had no doubt that his team, however, would easily succeed. Temari was skilled, Kankuro sly, and Gaara, well, Gaara was nearly invincible. In fact, he was wrong. There were two areas none of his genin excelled in: taijutsu and teamwork.

They had just walked through the forest, paying no attention to the beasts around them as Gaara's sand dispatched the creatures with little to no problem. They eventually found a hut like the one Hinata's team had found when the sun began to set. They simply walked in to the hut where a jounin was meditating. Without opening his eyes, the man asked, "The Sand team, huh? So, you going to do the mission or just try to steal my scroll?"

Temari answered for the group. "It all depends on what the mission is."

The man smiled. "Fight me. I'll use no ninjutsu or weapons and I expect you all to do the same. I don't expect you to win, but you only need to impress me to pass."

Kankuro smiled as that didn't really exclude his puppets and Temari smirked as she was fast for a genin and Gaara was simply untouchable. "We accept," she said with pride in her voice. The man, an odd man with bushy eyebrows, black dome-shaped hair, and a green outfit, opened his eyes and smiled.

"Your youth is refreshing. Hopefully our fight will be, too." He disappeared in a flash, appearing behind the group, kicking Kankuro and Temari with a split kick before punching Gaara in the face. All three went flying and were absolutely shocked. Who could be so fast as to get past Gaara's sand defense? Gai, however, simply continued to smile. "However, it seems your flames of youth could use a rekindling."

Gaara got over his shock and debated going demon on this green freak, but had, for some odd reason, gained a little bit of control ever since he met Uzumaki. No, the man hadn't said that he couldn't use sand, just not jutsu with it. He could do this. Kankuro was ticked and brought out Crow rather quickly, a rather odd looking puppet. It was clothed in rags, had too many arms and eyes, dark "skin," and looked rather mechanical. Temari, however, merely set her fan on the ground and prepared to fight. This could be a hard match.

While Baki scoffed and Kurenai worried, Gai was quite confident. In fact, he had been so confident about his group that he hadn't even felt the need to rest and worry in the jounin lounge with the others and joined the testing instead. You see, his team had two short range, high damage specialists and a long range cover specialist. They were fast, accurate, and efficient. Their only flaw was ninjutsu, something they were improving on and each had found ways to overcome. In fact, as he compared his team to the team he was currently fighting, he noticed that the strengths were comparable. The only thing that this team really lacked were the two things he was testing. You see, if he was impressed with their taijutsu then he would give them the scroll, but he also would do so if they merely used teamwork.

In reality, all Konoha teams focused on teamwork. The real tests to become genin all focused around working together. The trackers had worked to overcome Kurenai and find her in a set time limit while avoiding her genjutsu and other traps. The InoShikaCho team had been forced to "incapacitate" Asuma, though he really just wanted them to combine their skill sets in a fight. Kakashi's squad had needed to team up in a similar manner, though it only worked due to Sai using genjutsu to trick his teammates into fighting with him. The fox team had already had perfect teamwork due to linked minds and linked hearts.

Gai still remembered when his genin took their real test, a variation of Kakashi's and Asuma's respective tests. All three had failed separately before Tenten got them together. Tenten then provided cover while Lee acted as a first assault and Neji came in for the kill from behind. Neji hadn't wanted to team up with Lee at first, thinking prodigy and dead last of the class weren't exactly a useful pairing, but soon got over it. Although Gai easily beat them all down, he knew his group had potential. Honestly, that first strategy had become one of their base strategies that they still used to this date.

Currently they were using it on a team from Kiri. This group was highly specialized in long range weaponry, it seemed. Among a seemingly endless armory of senbon needles that they fired from umbrella like devices, they also used kunai, shuriken, and other handheld weapons. It seemed one member was area attacks, one was defensive techniques, and one went after specific targets. They never stood a chance.

Tenten was as good as those three were combined and used it freely. She forced all three to go on the defensive and when Neji and Lee joined her, Neji using his clan's technique to block the needles and Lee using pure speed to avoid them, the group was soon finished. Neji knocked one out with Jyuken strike to the lungs while Lee finished the other two off with his taijutsu. Soon after, though it was already well into the night and entering the morning of the next day, they had delivered the competitor's scroll they had taken from the team to the jounin they had found in an underground cave. They had had to fight off several human-sized bats to reach him, originally. The man coughed heavily, sick apparently, before giving them a testing scroll. "cough... You can keep the scroll you got earlier. Also, remember... cough... not to open the scroll before you reach the tower." Here was another fit of coughing. "You will regret it if I have to come after you for it."

They nodded in compliance before the man, a jounin named Hayate, sent them off. They quickly left the cavern and headed off to another small cave, a sinkhole of sorts, that Neji had found with his Byakugan in a very similar manner to how he had found Hayate's base. They set up traps and scheduled a guard, leaving Neji with first watch as it was the darkest here in the forest and his eyes would be the best suited to the situation. They settled in to the dark and waited for the sun to rise.

The jounin had gone to their hotels and homes and though they were trying not to dwell on their students, they couldn't really help it. Some were worried and others confident, but none had emotions quite so varied as one vixen. Natsuki had the utmost confidence in her mates, one a Kyuubi and the other a Juubi, and she also felt safe trusting Haku, a hanyou. However, the two blondes were still her mates and she felt something new. She knew she cared for them and was meant for them. She even felt their link, but tonight they were farther away and the link was weaker. She missed them and felt some new level of care and even, dare she say it, love?

She felt that she was missing part of her own person with them gone and her anxiety could not be soothed. She knew that Naruto needed to do this if they were to marry as, unless he became a chunin, he was too young by law to marry. Still, did it have to be so hard? Did it have to be life risking? Did it have to take them away from her for so long? She curled up in bed, missing the warmth that their bodies had made as they slept next to each other. But, beneath the tears, there was also a smile. Before she travelled off to dreamland she said, "You better kick ass."

And they were doing so. The first thing they had done that morning was have the kitsune send out masses of shadow clones, each equipped with a small mirror of ice. While their doppelgängers scoured the forest, the demons traveled in far enough and up a huge tree that had a hollow inside. They made that area their base and layered multiple genjutsu on it until they were certain that not even doujutsu like the Sharingan or Byakugan could find them. For the rest of the day they waited and gathered information as shadow clones dispelled or used their mirrors like radios to relay information as they tracked teams and relayed the locations of the jounin that they found.

At one point, they were worried about being discovered. You see, Hinata's team was in the area and, in fact, Kiba actually leapt onto the massive tree branch that was just outside of their hollow. He sniffed the air and spun around, looking for what the discrepancy was that he sensed, but eventually gave up when Shino called for him to get a move on. It seemed that their genjutsu had held up. Then the moon rose into the air. It was time to hunt.

They left the tree and found, among other things, a nest guarded by a giant bird. They fried up both the bird and eggs with a Katon jutsu and had a fairly good dinner. Night was theirs and they would enjoy it. Something about the demon blood in them called out to the moon, almost as if it was a kindred spirit. They, however, were not the only ones still awake. As a matter of fact, two teams had just passed each other in the night.

One team was a Kumo team. A dark-skinned boy with fair hair and a sword on his back led the group. A dark-skinned girl followed close behind, two smaller swords on her back, her crimson hair trailing behind her. A second girl followed her, this one with white skin and fair hair. A third girl, another fair-skinned blonde with longer hair trailed as the rear guard, her braid that normally ran past her waist splayed out in the wind. They hurried by, spurred on by hunting down a supposed threat to their village. You see, they had heard about not one jinchuriki, but two from the leaf. They were their targets. The other was the team of Oto nin. These sound ninja were still looking for a certain Uchiha on orders from their superior, though they were having trouble finding him despite knowing the general location. Both passed near each other and although the blonde with the long hair sensed the sound ninja, she didn't bother stopping for them. They would only be a waste of time and energy and they probably didn't even have anything worth stealing yet. It was good for the sound team that they didn't fight, or they would have truly been decimated. Both continued on into the dark, both in pursuit of prey they were having trouble finding, and both destined to, unfortunately for them, find it.

They weren't the only people having trouble that night, however. You see, the sand siblings were still struggling against the green clad freak of nature who had finally given them his name, Gai. They each took turns, but couldn't land anything on him. He even easily outran Gaara's sand. After a while, Temari got together with her brothers.

"He's too fast!" panted a tired Kankuro.

Gaara, who had a black eye and split lip, responded with a simple statement. "If I could use my jutsu he'd already be dead." They all looked back towards the jounin with a look that was a combination of fear and annoyance. He merely gave them a thumbs up and smiled so brightly that his teeth glinted.

Temari just sighed and shook her head. "So far we've been stupid. We need to go after him together or we'll never beat him," she noted. Her brothers, even Gaara, agreed. They spent the next minute formulating a plan. They were told that they could steal scrolls so, even though this man told them that they couldn't use jutsu, they would break his rules and get the scroll anyway. After a minute or so of watching, Gai got bored and let down his guard. That was all it took for the siblings to leap into action.

Temari quickly opened her fan and, while yelling "Kamaitachi! (Cutting Whirlwind)" swung it towards Gai and released several blades of wind at him in the process. He knew he could easily dodge, at least until he found sand gripping at his heels and saw Gaara, now to his left, while the sand clone the ginger had left behind crumbled. He managed to somehow escape it anyway by using pure, brute force. Unfortunately, however, that brought him right into the path of the poisoned senbon that Kankuro had Crow fire at him. He smiled wider, made a hand sign, and replaced himself with a log at last moment. He appeared behind Temari and tried to punch the unaware girl hard in the back of the head, but her brothers sprang to her defense with sand holding his arm back and a puppet acting as a shield.

Gai just smiled and said, "Well, I've got good news for you three. You pass."

Temari couldn't figure out what he meant. "Why? We didn't beat you the way that you asked."

"No, you didn't. But I also used ninjutsu when I said I wouldn't and, besides, I said you had to impress me, not beat me, and you were all most youthful in the way you used teamwork." He went to reach for the pocket where he kept the scroll, but the sand held him fast. "If you'd let me go, I'd give you the scroll." Here Gaara looked just a tad sheepish behind his stoic face and let the sand drop to the ground and recede into his gourd. Something told him that Uzumaki wouldn't be happy if he killed this man.

As the man held out the scrolls, Kankuro stepped forward and accepted them. "Now, I must warn you. Don't open these scrolls until you reach the tower. Otherwise, this will all have been for naught." The sand siblings nodded in understanding but, before they could take off, Gai offered them lodging in the tent. They accepted and actually managed to get a good sleep in for a few hours until the sun rose and Gai had to ask them to leave. The first eighteen hours had passed.

In fact, it was just at this time limit that the trackers made their move. You see, they had been waiting for sunrise to reach the canopy and be blinding from the west. It was at this moment that Kiba and Hinata leapt into the nest from their positions on nearby trees, forcing the bird to stare into the bright light and be disoriented. However, when they were about ready to fight, they noticed that the bird was gone and all but one egg had been taken. They had no way of knowing that the special assault team 12 had done it and were worried that someone else had talked to the same jounin they had and was beating them to it.

Shino jumped in from the east where he had been waiting to get the eggs while the other two distracted the bird, the surprise no longer needed. He shrugged, grabbed an egg, and said, "We must hurry." He started in the jounin's direction and the other two followed. They were silent, wondering what happened and how someone could have taken out the bird without them noticing. As they jumped through the trees, Kiba could swear he smelled something delicious, but it was probably just nerves coupled with hunger. If he had listened to Akamaru and not been so absorbed by his thoughts then he would know it wasn't just in his head. Alas, he did not pay attention.

They arrived at the tent, just in time to see another team leave the tent and go into the canopy of the trees. They went into the tent after they waited for the other team to be far enough away that sound wouldn't travel. It turned out that no one else had come to the man with an egg yet and that the other team had just found him. He gave them their scroll and his testing scroll as well, taking the egg, before wishing them luck. He would have to stay around as he still controlled a competitor's scroll. Hinata's team left and tried to figure out the best route and best time to get to the tower safely they decided to rest today, as they had stayed up all night, and travel at night where they would have the advantage with their keenly honed senses and other abilities. One day was up, and three were left.

At this point, many of the jounin had come back to the lounge to socialize and bet on winning teams. Gai had joined them today, though Jiraiya hadn't as he knew his team would be fine and, besides, with so many jounin gathered at the lounge, there would be less to kick him out of the hot springs where he would be conducting some "research." Now that the test was not novel and new, things were a little more calmed down, though Kurenai and Natsuki still worried and others held onto their lofty pride. Kakashi and Asuma, however, were just relaxing. Sure, they both weren't sure what would happen, but they had confidence in their teams and, after all, no fussing in the world could help now. Not that either team really needed much fussing over.

You see, assault team seven had already found a jounin tent in the middle of a dense grove, apparently the home of tigers. When they had found the tent, they had walked straight towards it until they saw a huge tiger walking through the woods that had, apparently taken notice of them too. They took defensive stances brought out kunai while Sai took out his brush and a scroll. However, when the tiger growled and charged them, a snapping sound was heard and two tree trunks that had been suspended as traps came crashing together on the tiger's skull.

At the explosion of gore Sasuke was disgusted and Sakura even had to throw up into the nearby bushes, though she berated herself as that would not be attractive to Sasuke. Sai, on the other hand, just painted what looked like a whole swarm of mice before using Choujuu Giga (Super Beast Imitation Drawing) to bring the whole swarm to life. As they scattered, the sounds of snapped wires, flying kunai, various mice falling victims to pitfalls, and even explosions echoed around the area. They now knew that the area was trapped, though they didn't realize how loud they were being. However, a certain pedophile in another's skin did.

Regardless, they had spent the last several hours navigating the minefield in front of them to finally reach the tent, sometimes backing up and once even leaving the area to try from a different angle, the jounin already waiting outside. He clapped his hands for them as they finally reached him. He removed a cig from his mouth. "Well, then, you've really damaged part of this clearing, I've gotta tell you." He took a drag and breathed out slowly as they came farther forward. "So here's the deal, I've got the testing scroll in my tent. You get it, it's yours. First, however, I need you to give me your competitor's scroll if you're going to go for it." Sasuke "hmphed" and Sai threw him the scroll. "Cool. Good luck, then." The jounin did a hand sign and the ground beneath the genin crumbled away, leaving them to fall down a deep hole.

The boys landed hard, but with little damage. Until Sakura fell on top of both of them. They saw the jounin peek his head over the top of the hole. "You guys climb up the hole, you get no scroll. You have to go through the maze if you want it. See you guys later." His head disappeared. Sakura realized she was on top of Sasuke and closed her eyes, enjoying the moment. And then Sasuke pushed her off of him.

They were about to take off into the maze when they heard the jounin again. "And to be fair, as I told them no one else was down there yet, there's a team down there already. Good luck." This time when the voice left it didn't come back. The group walked down the first of the dark corridors of the underground maze, disarming the multiple traps that were set up all around them. Above ground, the jounin was just smoking his cig slowly, enjoying the scent and taste. He hoped that these kids would fair well against that Kusa team that had suddenly shown up when the Leaf team had left the clearing for a minute to try a new route. But, for some reason, that team freaked him out. He let out his breath, releasing a long, dense cloud of smoke.

Another smoker was doing something similar in the jounin lounge, sitting with one arm around Kurenai and failing to keep their relationship secret. He just closed his eyes, almost asleep, not having a care in the world. His team would pass with any luck, and almost certainly live. Worrying about them when he could be enjoying himself was just too, well,

"Troublesome," spoke Shikimaru.

It was about four in the afternoon and they had finally found a tent and been given a task. Lead one of the Greenskin Rhinos back to the tent, alive and unharmed. Troublesome really might be an appropriate word for the situation. You see, when you and I picture a rhinoceros, we think huge and powerful with a giant horn. You might even know how fast they can sprint and that they, although normally peaceful, will attack any and all possible threats without mercy. You would not be thinking of Greenskin Rhinos. A Greenskin, you see, is larger, faster, has more endurance, and can turn faster at much higher speeds. And they are extremely territorial. So maybe killing one wouldn't be that hard for a group of ninja. Even capturing one would be easy. But leading one back without a scratch on its incredibly hard hide? That would be a challenge.

After receiving their mission, they left the tent and while Ino and Chouji despaired over the difficulty of their mission, Shikimaru sat in his thinking pose, crouched down with hands clasped in front of him, and tried to formulate a plan. Now, this would be hard for the average person as they would have to overcome the distractions that were blondy and tubby. Shikimaru, however, was used to them by now and managed to drown them out for the most part though he still caught the words chicken, pitchfork, and ubiquitous in the conversation. The genius let the cogs in his mind fire at high speed for a few minutes before it clicked. He sighed and stood up, rubbing the back of his head. The other two stopped, mid-whine, and waited to see what he had to say.

"What a drag. I know a way to do it, but it's going to be troublesome. Let's get going, I guess, and I 'll explain while we try to find some rhinos." With that, the black haired, lazy Nara jumped into a tree, soon followed by a bossy, blonde haired, purple wearing Yamanaka and a cheery, insatiable, brunette Akimichi.

It was nearing six by the time they found their targets, and it was about that time that assault team 7 found the exit to the maze. They had merely taken every right turn, marking the ground with a kunai when they turned. It had taken some time, many dead ends, and several close calls from traps, but they eventually found sunlight shining at the end of a tunnel. Soon, however, a single figure blocked the evening light.

It appeared to be a girl, a black haired Kusa genin wearing a simple beige outfit with her headband holding her tresses out of her eyes. "If you want the testing scroll, he already gave it to us. You'll have to take it from me."

Sasuke was a tad surprised at this girl as she had been so upfront about the fight, not trying to make it to the base at the forest's center for progressing or even trying to get them when their backs were turned. Sai agreed, similar thoughts running through his mind. The girl was being quite illogical. Something wasn't right. Sasuke, however, assumed her stupid and never considered that she may have hidden motives.

"Gladly." He started running down the corridor, kunai in hand, but when he had gotten about five feet from his group, he triggered a wire. A rockslide fell from the ceiling and nearly crushed their group. Sakura and Sai jumped into different side passages while Sasuke merely sprinted forward and outran it. They were unharmed, but separated, and Sasuke was alone with the odd female genin.

"Now, Sasuke-kun, let's begin." She smiled an inhuman smile, threw her scrolls she had been holding to the side, and charged at him. Now, did Sasuke find it odd that this freaky Kusa genin knew his name? Yes. But when you have someone of unknown strength and abilities bearing down on you at high speed, you don't really process these things.

He wasn't the only one having trouble as Sakura found she had picked a heavily trap infested route. She knew she could leave through it as she felt a breeze from behind her and knew it would travel straight through the cave from one opening to the other, but that didn't help her avoid all the traps or tell her if she was walking towards the entrance or exit. She jumped over wires and pitfalls, avoided small scale cave-ins and even - though she had no idea how such an elaborate trap had been set up - outran a rolling boulder. All the while, she heard the crashes and booms of jutsu coming from her precious Sasuke's fight.

Sai, meanwhile, had sent out tons of ink mice and bats to scout the route out of the cave. Some quickly returned, splattering on a scroll he held out to form a map of the explored section of the cave. He now knew how to get to Sasuke and was heading that way when another bat came back, screeching. It was a sign there was something wrong and, as if on cue, a humongous snake turned the corner at a high speed. Sai did his best to get out of the way but, in the cramped corridors of the cave, he could not. The snake swallowed him in one gulp before turning around in a nearby loop and traveling back to its master.

Sasuke was covered in cuts and bruises, regretting falling into the earlier trap as it had separated his team and subjected him to this challenging one on one fight that would have been a breeze if his team was with him. Early on in the fight, he thought he stood a chance. He was fighting on par with the Kusa genin, but then she started laughing. And although the voice was still breathy and carried a little lisp like before, it was now deeper and indeed much more sinister. With the laugh, their competition of kunai and taijutsu had become one-sided, the Kusa genin dominating, playing with him almost. Sasuke couldn't stand the feeling of being so weak, his Sharingan eye that he had earlier developed barely reading this girl's movements due to her high speed, his arms numbing with each strike, his heart pounding with adrenaline, but also pounding with fear.

Soon though, after cutting the boy all over his body, the girl jumped back with a smirk on her face. "Very impressive, Ssasuke-kun." She lingered on her s sounds, almost like hissing snake. "But, I'm afraid it's not enough." Seeing the boy still on the defensive, she decided to provoke him. "And after you're dead, I'll just have to make sure my snakes have killed the boy and, if your pink friend manages to make it out of the cave I'll have fun slowly skinning her while she cries for-" but she was cut off by Sasuke performing several hand signs before calling out Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Great Fireball Technique), putting his hand to his mouth like a funnel and blowing out a huge mass of fire that, in the small area, was nearly impossible to dodge.

However, when Sasuke released the jutsu, he saw nothing but a pile of incinerated snakes where his target had been. "Shit!" he swore aloud. It seemed that the opponent had use a substitution technique, the Kawarimi no Jutsu, to replace herself with the unfortunate reptiles. He was proven correct when, turning around, he saw the girl leaning on one of the walls of the cave, smirking at him.

"Is that all?" she asked. Sasuke snarled while going through an even more complex series of hand seals. This time, he refused to give himself away by naming the technique - Housenka no Jutsu (Mythical Fire Phoenix Technique) - spitting out several small balls of fire at the enemy, each coming from a slightly varied angle to make it harder to dodge. The girl was good and dodged every single projectile. However, it seemed that she didn't see the shuriken that he had hidden inside the fire. He controlled the little metal emblems of death with ninja wire that was attached to his fingers, wrapping them around the girl.

This time he performed similar hand signs and proclaimed his attack aloud, "Ryuuka no Jutsu (Dragon Fire Technique)," channeling the fire down the metal wire towards his opponent and even topping it off by throwing a kunai with an attached exploding note towards the girl who only screeched in pain and suffering until the note exploded and some more rocks fell onto her, ceasing her noise forever. Or so Sasuke hoped. But, alas, it was not meant to be.

The summon snake was making it's way back to its master, but it had forgotten something extremely important: Sai's tanto blade. The short sword was just long enough to pierce the snake's skin and Sai dragged it along the inside of the snake, creating a hole large enough for him to escape. He pried the body open and jumped out, only for the snake to try to turn back on itself. Sai, however, had prepared. With a single hand seal, the scrolls he had left back in the belly of the beast came to life as lions and bears were born on the snake's insides and tore it to shreds. It soon puffed out of existence as it was killed. Sai continued running the direction the snake had taken him, only to hear a rather large explosion. Turning the corner, he came across Sasuke. The boy was kneeling on the ground, panting and bleeding, and smirking.

Sai was relieved that Sasuke was safe, as his death would not have pleased Sai's true master, Danzo. Danzo wanted Sasuke to live and to serve the village. In any case, just as Sai was about to make himself known, the dust at the end of the hall settled and something forced its way up from underneath the rockslide. It was jerky, inhuman. A head raised up, skin seemingly dripping and peeling from the face. Snake-like eyes were revealed as both the old and new skins gave a monstrous smile. And the worst part was how it laughed. What the fuck was this? And Sasuke charged it.

The deep laugh of the monster grew louder as Sasuke approached and, just as Sasuke whipped through more hand seals and blew out another fireball, this time at ridiculously close range, the person vanished, leaving behind only its now incinerated second skin. Sasuke looked around for where they might have gone, but found nothing until snakes shot up from the ground, followed by the ninja.

Now, Sai knew who it was. He was petrified. How could one not be when facing the sannin? However, he had a mission. He rushed forward, hoping to get in a lucky strike against the man, but the pale man merely launched a well placed palm strike to his heart. Now, the snake sannin may not have had Tsunade's strength, but he was no weakling. The pale genin flew through the air until he hit a wall of the cave. He could feel his breath leave his lungs and, gasping for air so desperately needed while ignoring the pain that accompanied the ribs which he knew to be broken, managed to croak out, "Orochimaru," before he passed out.

The snake incarnate had not taken any kind of break from his prey while he dealt with Sai and was currently giving Sasuke a sharp bite from pointed fangs. They injected poison into his neck that started forming a design of tomoes on his shoulder. He cried out in agony and passed out. Orochimaru merely withdrew his elongated neck from Sasuke and gave an evil grin before vanishing in a swirl of leaves, the Shunshin still being one of the few techniques he actively used that he had to accredit Konoha before. On his way out of the forest he felt a familiar chakra signature and figure he ought to visit his old student on the way home. He beat her, Anko, down in a fight before warning that the exams should continue if Konoha didn't want there to be any trouble. Laughing, he left into the night.

For Team 2 of Kumo, the exam had been a little harder. With four members they needed to get two of each scroll. However, they were much more chunin level than genin level, one member even bordering on jounin, and had managed to receive their second set by nightfall of day two. Their first scroll had been beating a field on genjutsu set up around a cave filled with humongous bears. It had been a cakewalk. As it was, the second set was even easier. They came across a team from Iwa that was tired from another test and, well, they had left the team alive with a vegetable in tow.

At this point, they had only one responsibility. Find the so-called "demons" of the Leaf. Apparently some squad was making quite a stir for being mere genin and it was their job to assess the threat level that these ninja potentially represented. They were to eliminate them if necessary or run if they were overpowered. Kumo and Leaf may not be strict enemies, but they did have bad blood due to the previous Raikage's attempt to secure the Byakugan in Kumo. It was a disaster that left the most powerful member of the Hyuga's branch house dead and a powerful ninja of Kumo utterly destroyed. It had not been pleasant.

Unfortunately for them, however, it was Team 3 of Kumo that found, or rather, was found by, special assault team 12. Team 3 had not been bad, but no one at the genin level stands up to a Kyuubi, a Juubi, and a Hanyou with a hope of victory in sight. You see, Team 12 had seen Kumo 3 succeed with their challenge against a jounin, a game of hide-and-go-seek in the middle of a nest of giant wasps. And when I say giant, I mean the average wasp was two feet in height. Team 12 had mercy on the poor genin and merely had Haku use senbon to paralyze them while they found their scrolls. They even had the courtesy to leave them with a competitor's scroll as two would be excessive for Team 12. When Team 2 came within the range of the distinctive chakra pulse that was the Kumo version of the S.O.S., Team 12 was safe, back in their hollowed out tree.

Team 2 helped heal the damaged team, but, as they were still competition, not to full health. They talked about the fight and received an interesting report. It seemed that two members looked strangely alike with blonde and red hair, blue eyes, and, oddly enough, large fox tails. However, they seemed weak as the only member to do any fighting was a pretty, pale girl with pitch black hair. They remembered the people from the first exam but had assumed them to be weak, as arrogant and easy going as they were. They seemed so innocent, like they had no experience. She, however, was a threat. The raven haired girl had taken them down in less than one minute. They had left in another three minutes, but had the courtesy to leave behind what looked like the cooked leg of a giant chicken. Weird.

Regardless, it seemed that Team 12 was only a minor threat an could be overlooked. Kumo 3 left their little rendezvous a few minutes later and traveled at a safe and comfortable pace to the base in the forest's center. They would arrive at the building the morning of the fourth day, just after Team 12. But they would first come across something large.

A group jumped though the forest as if searching for something or someone. "What if we don't find him?" one asked.

"We will," was the blunt reply of another, the one who appeared to be the leader.

"Orochimaru-sama will be very disappointed with us if we don't, and it won't even matter how much you've helped him in the past if that happens." This third member was a tad worried.

"Don't worry, I know just where to find them. We'll be there in an hour or so." With that, they quieted down and continued to leap through the humongous trees, passing right over a clearing where three genin, a jounin, and - curiously enough - a large green rhinoceros where standing.

"Wow. Faster time than I expected," was all the jounin said as he threw Shikimaru the competitor's scroll that was theirs and threw Chouji the scroll they had won from bringing the beast back. In the end the challenge had been perfect for them. After waiting for night when shadows were abundant, Shikimaru trapped their targeted animal with his Kagemane no Jutsu while Chouji used his clans various destructive techniques to scare off the others that were nearby into a stampede. Once their target was by itself, Ino took control of the animal with one of her clan's techniques and walked back while inhabiting its mind. Chouji carried Ino's limp body and Shikimaru shuffled on alongside the fa- big boned boy. Although it had originally sounded hard, the task was a perfect match for their skill sets.

Now that they had their scrolls, Ino released the jutsu and returned to her own body. Before the rhino could retaliate, they took off into the trees and towards the tower. Little did they know that they were about to be a part of the largest battle in the actual chunin exams. Lucky them.

The morning of the third day saw Sakura tending to her teammates. She had found them and the exit just a few minutes after Orochimaru had left and had carried them to the mouth of the cave's exit. There she tended to them with her best first aid, trying to keep down Sasuke's fever while bandaging all of their cuts and doing her best with Sai's obviously broken bones. It was at this time when she saw a squirrel approach her position. She threw a kunai at it because if it got any closer than it may set off the traps she had surrounded the camp with. The little animal quickly ran off in fright but, when it had gotten ten feet outside of the camp, there was a sudden squirrelsplosion as the the explosive note on its back went off.

Now Sakura was on full alert. As were all the teams around her. An explosion meant an oncoming fight and that meant possible scrolls. With that, Gai's team came closer as did Kumo 3 who was passing by anyway. Konoha's InoShikaCho and "demon" team also closed in as they wondered what was going on. Suna even came as they had an eye of sand tracking Naruto's group the entire time and was wondering what all the commotion was about. The answer soon revealed itself when three teens with Oto headbands appeared at the edge of camp.

"Damn," said the girl, an air of superiority in her voice. "And I was just so hoping that our furry little bomb would take care of the problem." In fact, they had no clue how much of a problem their furry little friend had just caused. Shit was about to fly.

**And that is where I stop for the night.**

**Yet again, I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination.**

**Also, advertising here. I Beta. Good night, beautiful and not so beautiful people of the internet. Good night, beautiful and not so beautiful people of the interwebs.**


	12. A Change of Heart?

** I'm back. Here we go. ****First off, I own nothing except my version of Naruko and maybe a jutsu or two.** **I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination. Speaking of which, I would like to thank my reviewers, though there are too many to go by name for my taste you are all appreciated. Some of you have criticisms, which I appreciate. However, some of them are merely my tastes or instances of stupidity that are now too late to fix. If I finish the fic, I may come back and attempt to do so. I plan to have more of the relationship developed before the finals, in the month of preparation.**

**School is out and, hopefully, I'll be able to do more writing. At least, that's what I wanted. Having your external hard drive crash sucks. I took a two week break. Chapter for this and my Avatar crossover nearly complete, computer gets stolen. Took a month to get a new computer. Working seventy hours a week and prepping for college slows you down too. Whatever. I'm back; I'll try to update more. Life happens, I guess. And with that, we start.**

**AN **I have not edited the story nor have I finished the next chapter. I am having trouble finding inspiration in a story with so many cliches and OP protagonists that I occasionally underpower. I do hope to finish one day, but that it not today. That said, I have added this AN to address a reviewer who had simply been called Guest. I would like to thank him for some of the best reviews I have ever seen on this story addressing one plot hole that should be changed and one concern of a battle in this chapter. I plan to fix the plot hole/typo, and would like to thank this anon for being an amazing reader.****

**A Change of Heart?**

Now was the source of conflict. It appeared to be Oto against Sakura as Sasuke was still out and feverish while Sai was in a near coma. On the other hand, the Oto nin were fine. Kin was fine, standing on Dosuʼs left while Zaku stood on his right. The mummy was unreadable, though his bandages appeared frayed. The human wind tunnel was cocky, arrogant, and ready to go. And the team's kunoichi was revved up and ready to go. "Damn," said the girl, an air of superiority in her voice. "And I was just so hoping that our furry little bomb would take care of the problem. Oh, well. It just means a little more fun." The girl gave a smile that could only be called predatory. "You can hand over the Uchiha, or you can die. I hope you choose the second and I'm sure my teammates would be obliged to help you slow down the death process." Kin actually had a blood fetish only second to Anko.

Sakura knew she stood no chance, at least not against all of them. She could only hope the periodic chakra pulses she sent out that were the SOS of Konoha would attract help and that the traps that had originally been spread out around the field and reset by her would take out at least one enemy. Her hopes raised as the girl stepped forward, about to step on an exploding tag land mine, only to be stopped by a hand held out by Dosu. "Kin," he calmly stated, "you might be in a rush to die, but I plan to progress to the next stage. Do not blow off your leg like that." As he talked, he steadily tapped his arm. Was it a nervous habit?

After a moment of naught but his quiet tapping, Sakura gained some courage. "What he says is true. This field is full of traps that only I know the location of. Anyone who tries to get through here may not be able to leave this forest." She sounded a lot weaker and more unsure than she had planned, but at least she had been able to say it. At that, however, Dosu just laughed. "Well, you might have set them up, but we can easily tear them down." After one or two more taps on his arm, he started pointing at random spots on the ground, in the trees, and even one in midair. "Kin, use senbon on those exact spots." The girl obliged, throwing the needles with perfect aim at the now revealed traps. Pits were uncovered, tags diffused, wires tripped and cut, and mines in the ground blown up. The field was covered in potholes and fallen logs as all the traps that Sakura had painstakingly set up were set in action, harming nothing. The bubble gum haired girl fell to her knees when hit with the realization that she had no chance.

"H- how-" she began, quietly pulling a Hinata by stuttering, "how did you know?"

Zaku just cackled and wiggled a single finger as if rebuking a small child. "Now that would be telling, wouldn't it?" he said before he started walking forward across the now harmless field. "And now, since you didn't give up, we'll have fun killing the emo bastard and have fun with you before we kill you. Now, just come quietly, bitch, and this will all be alright."

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Lee was having a hard time watching his Sakura being approached by such an unsavory character, but was being held back by Neji, his tenketsu numb, while Tenten held a hand over his mouth to prevent his words from being heard. "We know you like her," Neji said, though he mentally added, ʻfor some odd reason,ʼ "but we can't get involved. It is unfortunate, but it is what Fate has decreed."

Tenten was a little more understanding. "Lee, I hate it too. It's rape, murder even. But they're allowed and we can't afford to reveal our hand. It sucks, but what can we do?" The girl's skin was crawling and she hated the sight in front of her, but the girl kinda had it coming for participating when she wasn't ready and they couldn't show off their skills. They felt the other teams waiting around the clearing. Damn, she hated that logic. The teammates pulled Lee along, leaving the clearing for the tower. Hoping another team would jump in.

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Inoʼs team, on the other hand, couldn't hold back their boisterous member as well. "Just wait. If she can't handle it, we'll jump in. Until then, we wait." That was Shikimaru and Ino conceded. But if there was trouble, she would jump in.

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The demons were in a similar boat. They couldn't allow such things to happen to fellow Konoha nin despite their distaste for the group. On the other hand, they didn't have to step in unless the ISC combo chickened out or was beaten. They prepped weapons, Naruto taking out his blades, Naruko her staff, and Haku several needles. If they had to jump in, they would be ready. The passive genjutsu fueled by Naruko covered the team from the othersʼ detection, including Kumo 3.

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Kumo 3 was in need of a scroll and was hoping they could wait for the combatants present or the team they noticed in the underbrush to be weak enough to present an opening. As it was, they were saddened when the traps were set off as they had hoped at least one Oto nin would be taken out. Regardless, this was their golden opportunity and they just had to wait it out.

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Everyone watched, waiting for a hairspring trigger to move. Zaku suddenly shot off several large blasts of wind at the girl and she, miraculously, managed to dodge the first two. The third, however, she needed to jump over, making her a perfect target for Kin. "Give it up, slut!" commented the raven haired girl as she casually threw several senbon for the girl's vital areas. Sakuraʼs eyes went wide at the sight and she was just able to make a replacement in time, a block of wood taking the impact as she appeared above Dosu. The spectators, while surprised she was lasting so long, were still unimpressed by her lack of skill. It was only proven further when Dosu blocked her punch without even looking to find her. She came down in front of him, landing unsteadily, and he punched her. He was aiming at her neck but, somehow, she moved so that it hit her much less vital back instead. It still sent her flying towards where she started. She sat up on her knees, emptying what little she had in her stomach before three senbon buried themselves in the ground around her, each vibrating at a slightly different frequency until they finally stood still. And that's when her vision went wacky.

She saw four or five of each of the Oto nin due to a genjutsu and barely held herself off of the ground. Zaku approached Sakura, intending to have some fun before he finished her off, when something strange happened. The counter offensive began.

"Zaku," Dosu said with a mechanical voice, "Why aren't you continuing. I've agreed to give you first dibs on the girl, but I do expect you to hurry so I can have my turn and still make decent time to the tower."

The boy who had frozen in place suddenly turned. "Zankuuha!" shouted the boy as he quickly, though awkwardly turned on his teammates, raised his arms, and shot out his jutsu. Both dodged in the nick of time. "As you may have noticed, your teammate no longer has his own will. If you back off now, no one will have to get hurt." Dosu, oddly enough, punched his arm. In a moment's time the black-haired wind cannon of a boy was on the ground, ears bleeding. "You ass! You actually attacked your own teammate!" he was shouting.

Shikimaru decided enough was enough and, though he didn't know the exact nature of the wrapped boy's attack, he could tell it had to do with his right arm. Although no one could see his face, Dosu seemed to smirk. Kin visibly did so. "If he is weak enough to become a liability, yes. I wish to move on, but our objective is much more important. That is why you and your team will be destroyed." With that, he raised his arm to block a sneak attack by Chouji while Shikimaru attempted to trap the girl in his shadow. Unfortunately, he failed as the sound waves from Choujiʼs impact affected him and threw him off his game. In an instant, the girl was at Zakuʼs throat with a kunai, her body behind his, holding him still.

"Release the technique or he dies. And, who knows, you just might too." At this the raven haired girl smiled. Zakuʼs eyes opened wide.

The captive quickly shouted, "Kai!" before falling limp and waking as himself a second later. Finding the position he was in, he was about to make a sex joke about her sadism until he noticed the shadow. Unfortunately, such a comment would have to wait. A shadow seemed to be trailing towards them and only his quick leap backwards stopped the Kagemane jutsu from occurring.

"Shit," swore the Nara boy as he retracted the shadow. However, the time it took to do so was enough. The enemy nin held a kunai to the blonde and pineapple headed boy, Zakuʼs air holes resting against Chouji. They were dead if they moved.

"Any last words?" Asked Kin, of course causing Shikimaru to mutter his favorite phrase. "Too late, then." As she was about to cut through Shikimaruʼs neck, she felt cold steel on her own.

Zaku was suddenly in a field of ice senbon and Dosu surrounded by an army of blonde and red haired girls. This was not promising. The boy who held Kin spoke. "You fought well and strategically. I can not stand for your attempt at rape, but I can stand for your skills. You have once chance to go. Otherwise, you will die here." The sound of several shunshin left all three captives free of their captors as both teams landed in a defensive wall around assault team seven. "Please consider."

"Dosu," said Zaku, "they've got numbers and the new three are pretty good. We should leave." Dosu looked torn, but Kumo 3 wanted a blood bath and chose now to appear.

"No. You consider, Konoha bastards!" said a boy from Kumo 3. Each had a short sword across his back with various weapons on their sides. Apparently they liked pointy objects. The boy had a large fuma shuriken, one of the girls a sickle, and the other girl a second sword. "Oto nin, we have no love for you, but we are after the ice bitch and her teammates. We will help you if they merely are killed and we can get our scroll back."

The Oto nin looked at each other for a moment before Dosu spoke up. "All right. Our only goal is to kill the Uchiha, but it looks like we will have to work with you to do so. Until we have both accomplished our goals, we will work together."

Kumo 3 and Oto were staring down the ISC and demon squads, but the Konoha genin were too busy to return the glares. The ISC team was wondering how their fellow genin had become so strong and even the shell shocked Sakura was curious as to that notion. However, the demons didn't mind. Naruto and Naruko stood with hands locked and weapons away. They wouldn't be necessary. Naruto gave a feral grin, his tails waving manically behind him while Naruko simply relaxed and waited for the inevitable. Haku stood on Sakuraʼs other side to prevent openings.

"Naru-chan," said Naruto, "I know you haven't gotten a chance yet, but do you mind if I take this one?"

Naruko just smiled at her impulsive mate. "Go ahead. But I get the next one then." She placed a small kiss on his cheek and squeezed his hand.

"Okay. Just guard Sakura in case I miss something." He squeezed her hand as well, one tail intertwining with one of hers while another started to shimmer. "Though that is unlikely." And then he was gone.

Kumo 3 just stood with mouths open. Not only was he faster than the koorime, but they had just fed Nii Yugito false info. If the demon here didn't kill them than their own domestic one probably would. They couldn't let these beasts reach the next round; even if they only took out one it might lessen their punishment for the misinformation. However, they should have thought less and been more careful. One girl was taken out with a chop to the neck, the second with a knife to the tendons in both arms and legs, and the boy with a kick that sent him right into a tree. They might have been Kumoʼs weakest team present, but it still showed skill that they were there and, five seconds later, were not.

The Oto nin barely saw the boy move, but caught him in their sights as he stopped in between them. Each instantly launched their favorite techniques. Kin threw an amount of senbon at him that could only be called overkill while Zaku shot out another Zankuuha and Dosu slammed his fist into the ground for the biggest reverberation up his arm while calling out "Kyoumeisen," finally revealing his Melody Arm. And Naruto just stood there.

It only took a split second for the moves to close in, but the ISC squad was watching in great anticipation. Ino was concerned for Naruto. ʻHe might have taken on the others and won, but that was by surprise! It was lucky! He can't possibly dodge this!'

Chouji just stood still, all thoughts of food gone from his head. ʻCome on Naruto!' Possibly because the blonde had just saved his life, Chouji felt almost indebted to him. 'You can't die here.'

But Shikimaru just stood lost in thought. ʻSo this is what the "demon" squad is capable of? Damn, they're monsters!' And Shikimaru was right. As unstoppable wind, cold steel, and penetrating sound closed in, Naruto jumped. It wasn't that big of a deal to his attackers who just redirected the remainder of their attacks, but then he jumped again, pushing off against the air.

Dosu soon experienced naught but the cold release of oblivion, sent into unconsciousness by the hilt of a knife against his skull. As soon as the others saw what happened, they redoubled their attempts to get him. However, it wasn't enough to stop Naruto from getting behind Kin and holding a knife to her throat. "Zaku is your name, right? You wouldn't want little Kin here to die, would you?" Naruto expected this to be a good end to the fight. However, he was proven wrong. He seemed to forget Dosu had attacked Zaku when necessity called earlier. And Zaku returned the favor to Kin. The boy raised his arms slowly, as if in surrender, before quickly dropping them for his attack and yelling it out again. Honestly, Naruto never understood why they screamed out the names of their attacks. It just gave away their next move. Whatever. The tunnel of cutting air hit the ground where he had been just a moment ago, and, when the dust cleared, they were nowhere in sight.

A dragon of fire, however, was. It came roaring at Zaku who blasted it with wind, only for it to pick up in speed and power as it absorbed the oxygen in the attack. The boy was hidden from sight for a second as the fire devoured him and streamed over his body. When it left, the boy was on his back, panting heavily and covered in harsh burns. "Tch," was all they heard as the Konoha nin turned to see Naruto behind them, tails waving slowly and an unconscious Kin in his arms. "It wouldn't have done so much damage if he had just let it hit him without boosting it. I really just wanted the dragon to scare him off. Whatever." He set the girl next to her air cannon teammate before moving the still conked out Dosu to their position and, with Narukoʼs help, tying them up, fingers included so hand seals were out. Haku quickly frisked them before finding their scrolls.

"Anyone need a scroll?" she called out to assault team seven and the ISC squad. It finally snapped them out of their stupor.

Sakura, still subdued, just shook her head no.

"No," Ino started, "thank you, though. How did you- and then you- and next how?"

Her teammates were just as confused as she was. She knew that something had changed on graduation day but this was just unreal.

Naruko giggled while Naruto chuckled a little and Haku just stood to the side. She had never seen the blondes before the tails. As Naruko wrapped her arm around him, he rose his hand to behind his head and said, a little unsure if they would buy it or not, "Training?" And they all face faulted. Until they heard a dark sound in the background. Sasuke was laughing.

"Well then, dobe, let's see who has gotten stronger." The boy sat up and everyone cringed in disgust as black symbols crawled over his skin, crusted blood covering much of his body, eyes transforming into Sharingan, though that almost looked sickly. However, the demon squad had trained in the forest of death. They had seen the remains of people that were in much worse condition. They had killed first hand. The only thing that disgusted them was that sick chakra leaving his body. It wasn't demonic or human; it was a perversion of nature's laws. And they would destroy it. "Fine, teme, we'll see whose-" but Naruto was cut off there as Naruko placed two fingers to his lips.

"Ruto-kun," she pouted, "you said I would get the next fight."

"Well," the pout increased, "but I," she started to release a slight whimper, "Fine." The pout vanished and was replaced by a bright smile. "Now just give me a second, okay?" she said while staring into his eyes. He was still in heat, competition with the jinchuriki, she supposed, was causing it, and it turned her on. She sensually, slowly, removed her fingers and planted a quick kiss on him - his ears perking up for a second at the contact - before walking away, her hips swaying just a little more than normal.

"I said I wanted the dobe, not his bitch," snarled Sasuke.

She stopped, put a hand on one hip and shook her finger at him as she said, "Now, now, now, by the end of the day, you'll be the only bitch here Uchiha-teme." It was all spoken in a teasing voice with a slight smile. And then he launched at her, full of killing intent with the most emotion he had ever shown: a heart full of spite and bitterness. She merely stretched out an arm to match his trajectory and he, barely, dodged as his Sharingan which was newly activated helped cancel out his tunnel vision.

He stopped the haymaker he was attempting and changed it around to a spinning hook kick which was easily dodged while she returned with a kick of her own. Although the boy dodged, he was caught for just a moment by one of her tails.

What Sasuke felt was extremely odd. One moment he was full of bloodlust, power mad, wanting nothing less than to fight to the death. And then he was caught as more and more tails grabbed onto him. He closed his eyes. Now, however, he realized that he didn't hate her. He wasn't mad. He wasn't bitter, or jealous, or petty. He felt relaxed. Their present audience merely watched as he lost the will to fight. It was in that moment that Naruto realized something. Naruko had always been able to calm him down. She had always been able to soothe him. It was one of the gifts she had as a Kyuubi kitsune. Oddly, though, the odd chakra didn't dissipate. It morphed. It was still as strong as ever, but now the energy felt natural. The black pattern didn't recede, but melted in. And they could swear that they heard the ever so slight shriek as a presence left the boy, all of his long standing hates and fears as well as something- foreign. When the boy opened his eyes, he stood tall with two tomoe in his Sharingan.

Naruto was shocked that the boy was progressing so quickly, but it made some sense. Free from the burden of his clan's massacre and free from whatever that disturbing chakra was, of course the boy would instantly start to make progress. The Juubi smiled as his mate lowered the boy to the ground. The raven haired boy gave a fairly deep bow before uttering two words no one expected. "I'm sorry," he said as his eyes, now onyx again, released a single tear. "For everything." He then joined his team in the sweet embrace of sleep, Sakura having fainted at the feeling of his malevolent chakra.

The ISC team just looked at the demon squad, waiting for something to happen. Hell, so much had already happened. However, no one was expecting what came next. Narutoʼs stomach growled and he looked their company over, "Anyone up for some Great Falcon meat?" Ino face faulted, Shikimaru said, "Troublesome," before walking over, and the "starving" Akimichi ran over full speed.

The rest of the night went smoothly. They spent the night just inside of the cave and used smokeless Katon jutsu to cook the remaining bird they had sealed away.

Naruko leaned on Naruto as they talked and cracked jokes. Haku, who had been working on medical jutsu, managed to apply some basic first-aid and at least numb the pain of the Oto team, Kumo team, and assault team seven, though it was mainly to prevent the deaths of the genin from Sound and Kumo and more comprehensive for her compatriots.

Sai woke for a little while and both Sasuke and Sakura were fine by the end of the night, minus an inner ear problem for Sakura and uncontrollable chakra pulses for the Uchiha. Whatever happened had enlarged his chakra reserves dramatically, and lowered his control by at least as much. With the formerly emo boy not being such a dick, Sakura wasn't as much of a bitch either. And if anything good came from this was that Sakura would no longer be screeching for her Sasuke-kun. Hopefully. Usually. In the morning, the three Konoha teams left with Sai on a homemade Uzumaki carried stretcher and several shadow clones left behind, from the bottom of their generous hearts, to cut the other teams from their bonds in an hour or two. It was the morning of the fourth day and the Oto nin, at least, still had both of their scrolls. With nearly eight hours left, both teams could potentially still make it. The Konoha nin could only travel at a medium slow rate as they were carrying Sai and both Sasuke and Sakura were weak from the fight, though as before Sasuke had random huge bursts of energy as the day went on.

When they arrived they found that each team had a gate marked for them in the tower and entered. None of the teams noticed as Suna made it behind them, Gaaraʼs gourd covered in the blood of Kumo 3, the team that thought Gaara looked like an easy target. They entered the building, not noticing their tails. Kabutoʼs team left the forest canopy and simply strolled into the building. After all, there were still four hours left to kill.

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As they entered the building, each team found themselves in similar rooms that had a huge mural on the wall depicting the fight between Madara and Hashirama with a riddle underneath that alluded to them being on the verge between new recruits and something more. With this clue the figured out that they had to open both scrolls, the competitor's scroll and the challenge scroll, at the same time and did so with varying reunions afterwards. Natsuki glomped her mates while Haku simply moved to Zabuzaʼs side. It seemed that Jiraiya and Yamato had been called to short missions and would meet up with them tomorrow.

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Asuma appeared from the smoke of the scrolls, smoking himself, and gave a calm congrats. When his team asked to step up their training, he was surprised. Ino had seen once and for all that Naruto was an okay guy and that, well, him and his team were monsters. She had known since she started seeing Iruka that Sasuke was a teme and Naruto not bad but, hey, old habits die hard. Despite her kunoichi pride, she knew she would be no match for the demon team. Likewise Shikimaru hated the work it would entail but knew it to be necessary. Chouji just went along with it because there was promised food by Ino. Asuma told them he would help, but that they should relax for a few hours in case the test continued before the day was up.

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Likewise, Kakashi met up with his students in a very calm demeanor. "Yo." And that was before he noticed one student had no balance, one was exuding weird chakra pulses, and one had a mainly broken skeletal frame. This would be an odd conversation.

Baki met up with the Suna trio and was debriefed as to what happened. He placed a marker on the "demon" squad despite Gaaraʼs wishes. "They need to die. They are in the way of the plan. If you face them, kill them." And that was that. They might not have wanted to kill their new acquaintances, nearly friends, but orders were orders. Life sucks. Finally, Kabuto and company met up with their sensei and- well that is a story for another time. Leave it to say that Suna was not the only team with hidden agendas.

Four hours had passed and after a quick nap the demon squad entered the main room of the base. The room was roughly the size of two football fields from end to end and the ceiling had been retracted so that it was open to the air. Two balconies lined the long sides of the room and where you would expect a goal post between the two connected "football fields" there was a large series of statues. Each statue had the symbol of the major five villages and was in the shape of a tree native to each village, their branches intertwined. There were also smaller trees making it a complete stone forest, each with the symbol of minor villages - Oto was even included despite its very recent emergence. The forest was probably 30 feet in radius. One side of the room had a small viewing area in which the Hokage sat with a few jounin.

Demon team took their place in the lineup and, after a few minutes, a battered Oto team rushed through the doors, just barely making it in time. After they made it to their spot, the Hokage stood and delivered a speech. Many teams learned there that these exams were just a simulation of war that showed villages and customers the strength of shinobi without mass battles being required. Though many were still hurt or even killed it saved a lot of life and heartbreak. Many of the better teams, however, already knew this or didn't care about it. No, they were sizing up the competition. Nine teams had passed and that would not bode well in the single elimination tournament that was the final stage of the test. It would take too long. As a matter of fact, a sickly jounin interrupted the Hokage to say so.

He coughed as he took over. "In fact," he took a second to wheeze, "we will need to hold preliminaries. If you don't believe you are fit to continue, please raise your arm to be dismissed." Here he was wracked with another bout of coughs. Only two raised their hands, well, one and a half. Kabuto, who looked like Hell, did so.

"We fought a team day one and I haven't recovered. I can't continue." He smiled apologetically, but he was covered in grime and cuts. He was believable. He walked out of the room innocent, but the Hokage remembered that boy, the only one to survive a famous slaughter. And he had failed many times before. It was oddly suspicious, but nothing concrete. He'd look into it.

The other person to give up would be Sai. He could barely raise his arm as it had been broken quite well. So, giving a cheesy smile, he said, "I am unable to continue, but would like to watch." The Hokage nodded at this. The boy was quite injured.

After a little more coughing, the proctor continued. "By the way, I am Leaf jounin Gekkou Hayate." He bowed slightly while he coughed. "In order to slim down the numbers for the viewed single elimination tournament, we will hold the first round here as a preliminary exam." He coughed some more as a wall panel moved to reveal a large screen. "The screen behind me will match up two competitors randomly. They will then fight, no moves barred, until I call the match or one party is unable to continue. If I call the match and the winner continues, they will be deemed the loser or both parties will lose." He coughed a little bit more before continuing. "Those whose names appear, come to in front of me. Everyone else, to the balconies."

Everyone watched with baited breath as the screen cycled through the names before ending on Chouji of the Leaf vs. Zaku of the Sound. Everyone else shuffled upstairs, the Leaf teams staying close together except for the oldest genin and the Suna team staying near Naruto. Kumo, Oto, and the oldest Leaf team stayed on the other set of bleachers.

The two boys came down to face each other. Hayate walked between the two. "The only restrictions are to not use the balconies or viewing area for the Hokage. Besides that, go crazy." He stepped back.

Chouji just casually continued eating chips. He realized that his best technique was out of his reach as, unfortunately, he had lost too much body fat. Partial expansion and the meat tank would have to do.

Zaku, on the other hand, was less passive. "Come on, lard ass."

And Hayate knew to get out of the way. You don't stand between an angry Akimichi, even a genin, and his target. "Go!"

Chouji stopped eating; his hand clenched the bag tightly with his other hand at his side. He stared at the ground and asked, "What did you just call me?"

Zaku smiled a conceited smile. "I called you lard ass. What, are you a dipshit-" but he never got to finish that sentence. Without even calling out the jutsu name, Chouji punched out with an absolutely gigantic fist and nailed the burned genin with it.

He now looked up, eyes seemingly ablaze. "I'm not fat." And then, now with more energy, almost a battle cry, "Tubbies rule!" And with that he transformed into the legendary meat tank of the Akimichi clan- a huge rolling ball of doom and destruction made out of its users expanded body.

Now, Zaku was still recovering from the first shot. Crispy skin didn't help and, as he moved, he could feel the skin cracking open and bleeding. However, that didn't stop him from realizing the destructive power of the other boy's jutsu. Attempting to save his life, he reached out his hands and cried, "Zankuuha!" The air cannon managed to knock the bowling ball off course, but it just came around again. Knowing that he didn't have much time before his body simply gave up, Zaku tried again himself. This time he attempted it dead on with an elongated blast, but the bowling ball that is Chouji just kept on going. Zaku barely managed to jump out of the way of that one.

Knowing he only had one or two shots left, Zaku decided to step it up. He stood right in the path of the boulder yelling, "Zankyokukuuha!" and shooting even more air from his arms, however, the boulder only slightly slowed. He jumped out of the way this time so he was only thirty or so feet in front of a wall. He had found Choujiʼs weakness.

This time when the cannon ball of a boy approached him he waited until the last second. He could feel the spray of dirt and dust as the arena floor was shredded. Even then he did not move. He waited until he could easily reach out and touch the boy before aiming a hand at the ground and using an air blast to help propel him over the heavy boy before aiming at Chouji as the boy was still trying to steer out of the way from hitting the wall and yelling out, putting all his remaining chakra into the blast, "Zankyokukuuha!"

Chouji's own momentum was only compounded by the gale force wind that pushed him forward and head first into the stadium wall. A puff of smoke covered the area as Chouji tried to dispel the technique, but it was too late. A giant crash was heard and when it cleared the boy was seen, head bleeding heavily, sitting next to a huge spider web of cracks in the rock wall.

"Winner, Dosu of Oto," interrupted Hayate. The Sound boy gave a slight smirk. He walked, though gingerly due to his skin, to his team while medics rushed in for Chouji. The boy was hurt, but not beyond repair. Some bed rest would do him well. His team members were ticked, but not overly. Ino was still not entirely caring of the world as long as Sasuke was there and Shikimaru had guessed what the outcome would be from early on. Asuma just hoped this would enlighten the boy to the miracles of training. Besides, the boy hadn't been too bad after calling Chouji lard ass.

Whatever, there were more important things out there like the next match, Kiba vs. Sasuke. And what a disappointment that match was. Kiba should have won, honestly. But he was much too arrogant. He knew Sasuke was not in control of his new power and didn't want to make himself look weak by going full strength. That's why he had Akamaru sit out. Unfortunately, in a moment of extreme fluctuation, a fireball of a huge magnitude formed from an Endan that had been intended as a weak discouragement from using Gatsuuga. The Kentucky Fried Genin was quickly removed from the field. He'd recover; it would just take a little time. And some skin grafts.

As soon as Sasuke reached the balconies above, Kakashi planted a chakra suppression seal on his back. Until the new chakra was looked at and under control it just wouldn't do to have it leak out like this. After all, it was based in the cursed seal, a very powerful fuinjutsu technique. In the meantime, however, it seemed to cause little enough harm and didn't worry Kakashi enough to have the boy rushed away for examination. The slightly humble attitude of the boy, strange in itself, helped things for Sasuke. Even the demons were thinking better of the boy.

Regardless, it was time for match three. If the last match was unfair, this was absolutely one sided. Tenten of the Leaf vs. Gaara of the Sand. For three minutes the pain lasted. Kunai, shuriken, hatchets, other knives, senbon, comma, and various other weapons were thrown. And blocked by a wall of sand. They were all whirled around at their target at once, directed by the attached ninja wire. And blocked by a sphere of sand. Gaara only said one thing that round. "Is that all?"

The weapons mistress was in shock, awe, and rage. This boy was mocking her! Now, she only had a limited store of her best weapons, but it was now or never. And with that she threw out a barrage of two types of kunai. One was a standard kunai with an exploding tag tied around it. Another was what looked like a kunai that was unfinished and still rough. The first wave of kunai, those with the exploding notes, impacted against the sand defense, weakening it and making holes. The second set managed to penetrate the relatively weak (at least compared to normal) wall remaining. And then they exploded. Unlike the last set, these had internal explosives that made them a variation of a modern frag grenade. And Gaara was torn apart.

Everyone looked at where a boy once stood, fearing the weapons of the bun haired girl. Everyone except the demons and jinchuriki. They knew it was not over. And that was something easily understood when sand encased the poor girl and raised her from the ground. Gaara, who had replaced himself with a sand clone, now approached her, arm extended and hand open. "Is that all?"

Kakashi looked at his rival. "Gai, tell me you taught her something else?" he asked with some slight interest. His rival could only shake his head no.

Tenten gulped audibly. "Proctor, I cede the match." And with that the fearsome girl was taken out by the monstrous red head. As the boy was unsure how close the girl was to Uzumaki, he lowered her to the ground before walking away. He still didn't know why or how he knew so, but pissing off the blonde was not a good idea. It would be signing a death warrant.

Both combatants, neither truly injured, walked back towards their corners. Both were dissatisfied, but the match was over and naught more was to be done. Well, nothing but watch the next match. Which just so happened to be their teammates. "Good luck Lee!" hollered Tenten as the boy jumped down to the floor below. "Kick that girl's ass!"

Surely enough, "that girl's ass" was kicked quite thoroughly. It was a complete repeat of the previous match. "I ask you to consider stepping down, Temari-san. I do not wish to harm you."

And now the tomboy of a girl, though pretty in her own way, dropped her smirk and exchanged it for a scowl. "Fuck you." And with that the match began and ended. The girl decided for a quick end to the match. This boy just rubbed her the wrong way. She opened up a large battle fan, iron siding with an animal hide interior, treated specially for durability, and a three moon pattern on the inside. She quickly picked it up, showing great strength for her appearance, and swung it with both arms while yelling out, "Kamaitachi!"

Yet again, just like the last match, her target was gone, disappeared from in front of her eyes. "Boo!" said a joking Lee, right behind the girl. Once she was over the shock, she attempted to hit him with the fan close range, but he merely caught the fan mid-swing and gave a simple kick that sent her flying through the air and into the stone forest.

"Damn," Zabuza spoke. "That brat's speed is almost as fast as mine. Hell, he could probably give most jounin a run for their money."

Haku, still attached to his shoulder, nodded her agreement.

And then, not unlike a pinball, the boy started bouncing around the trees. The cement obstacles were unbelievably sturdy and Temariʼs powerful wind attacks could only scratch the surface of the trees while Lee used them for enhanced mobility. He beat her from one side with a kick before a punch hit her back and launched her off of the ground. It was all finished with a simple axe kick as he appeared above her a slammed her into the earth. After Hayate checked to make sure she was out, he made his declaration. "Winner, Lee of the Leaf."

And with that a small team of medics came to escort her off. She would probably require a few bones to be set, but nothing major for a ninja. Meanwhile, Lee jumped up to the balcony before being praised by his sensei. "Lee, that was so youthful," he said in a voice that was proud, choked up, and borderline hysterical.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-oomph!"

Naruto had seen that jutsu before. He didn't want to have his mates exposed to such a thing. Despite the fact that it was just a display of intense emotion of a father/son variety, it was disturbing. That is why he used a split-kick to knock the air out of both of them before he shot them both a vindictive look. "What did we say would never be done around me or my mates?"

They gulped. "The Beautiful Sunset of Youth genjutsu?" Gai hesitantly answered.

"Good then." He gave an extra-large smile as he reached into a pocket and pulled out a small hard candy. He flipped it into the air and Gai, his favorite treat in sight, jumped for it. "Good boy."

Now, it was a little odd walking back to his team when everyone was giving him an odd glance. How the hell had he gotten control over one of the Leaf's most uncontrollable jounin? Violence and sugar. Always a good answer.

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The board started cycling through names as Naruto reached his mates. He stood in the middle of the two, arms and tails encircling them. And the fact that her name came up just made him sigh as one of his mates name's appeared. Naruko of the Leaf vs. Darui of the Cloud. A little less warmth for the cuddle fest. Whatever. "Kick his ass, Naru-chan," he said to her in a voice that was both encouraging and a little playful. She turned back to him and gave him a small peck on the lips before seemingly disappearing and reappearing down below.

Darui, on the other hand, just said something about how dull the event was and jumped down after her. After all, this girl didn't matter. It was only the brunette who was strong if things were to be believed. And that almost got him killed. "Sinking Swamp!" was the first thing yelled when the match started. Darui felt the ground beneath him give way as he started to feel a pull down on his feet. It would have been all over had he not been good with water jutsu.

He yelled out, "Suijinheki!" but aimed at the ground. Normally the water encampment wall would be used to block an attack, but this time it propelled him from the watery grave, giving him just enough lift to escape. 'Damn,' he thought. 'I'm supposed to be a damn chunin already, but now I'm being tried by a genin. I'm sorry, Yugito, but I might need to reveal something of my strength.'

He looked up from the kneeling position he had landed in. The girl was racing towards him, kunai in hand. He smiled - very slightly but still a smile - before rushing through hand seals. As he expelled a second water encampment wall, he sent electricity through it and into the huge puddle previously there. He said, "Kangekiha," in a small voice, expecting the round to be finished.

The water washed over Naruko, drenching and shocking her terribly. The pain in her body was unbearable. She fell to the ground and Darui merely started to walk away after the technique impacted. Poor, foolish boy.

The body behind him had taken all of the damage it could and dissolved into mud that washed away in the water, the dirty water alerting him to the technique. However, upon turning around back to her, he saw something, well, disturbing. Over one hundred Narukoʼs were stationed around him. And they each had out ebony staves that pulsed a deep red. Shit. He whipped his head around to see what happened to the other body, to confirm it was gone.

Big. Mistake. As he turned around to see the mud, five clones attacked. Each used a strike to complement the others, and each hit. Almost. They hit, you see, the explosive note covered stone Darui had replaced himself with. The blast dispelled the clones and gave a little heads up to the boy. You see one clone turned into water, one into mud, two into smoke, and one blew up. The girl could use damn exploding clones!

He had to keep his distance. He ran back, away from the mob, towards the fake forest. Once he was safe, hidden in the high branches behind stone leaves, he started making hand seals at the approaching army. He spit out several small arrows of water before clapping his hand and releasing a wave of energy using Reizaa Saakasu, a storm release bloodline ability. He may not even truly be a demon, but some humans still held bloodlines through freak mutations or selective breeding. And storm release was always fun.

The now energized bolts of water, electrified and propelled, flew towards a different clone each. Some of the projectiles collided with their targets, taking them out, while others collided with stone trees and merely exploded, leaving small craters in their wake. Every clone was taken out, though Naruko managed to deflect the blasts that had targeted her by using her staff. It seemed that, as long as she ran both water and lightning chakra through it, the staff and blasts would repel. In fact, now that she had a general idea of his location, she hit the last bolt with the tip of her staff and redirected it towards Darui. Needless to say the boy was scared shitless when a crater formed roughly two feet from his face in a nearby tree.

At least there was only one of her now. No way could she block another Reizaa Saakasu. He made the hand seals while everyone just watched her stand in place, even sealing away the staff. A second later, over fifty blasts of electrified water were homing in on her. And they were now only one hundred feet away.

Up in the stands Naruto was watching with interest. "She's got this in the bag," he said quietly.

The adults, who had been a little more worried, turned to him and Natsuki explained. "Well, after seeing the Blinding Shield and Shroud of Blades, I helped streamline and improve them. Now they, well, just watch." They all turned back to the fight as Naruko finished a series of seals and clapped her hands together.

She screamed out, "Blinding Mirror Shield!" and this time when the shining protective sphere appeared, it not only blocked the attack, but sent them right back at Darui, and at a higher speed.

"Shit," said the boy. "This is so-" he started until the attack hit him. An explosion, small but powerful, swallowed up the boy who soon fell to the ground, bloody and smoking. "Dull."

"Winner, Naruko of the Leaf!" shouted Hayate.

Naruko put her hands behind her back and walked over to the downed nin, a small, innocent spring in her step. "Great fight," she said when she was closer. "Let me help you." She put a hand on him before using shunshin teleport to appear with his team. "He's not hurt that bad, but he probably won't want to move for a while." She smiled serenely before teleporting back to Narutoʼs warm embrace.

'Shit,' Yugito was pissed. 'I don't even know how she pulled off that last move in time,' she thought. 'It looks like the ice girl isn't the only threat on the team after all.' She looked at her remaining team. "If you face the blonde with tails or the ice girl, don't hesitate to kill, or you will lose." She wasn't sure she'd be able to win. After all, the girl had just been playing with Darui, except for that last jutsu. "Hell, go all out on pretty much anyone. Just make it quick if you do." They all nodded.

Killer Bee, their sensei, decided to reinforce what she had said. "Just remember, guys, if you don't attack your face will be whack. Are you smelling what I'm stepping in, dattebayo?" Two nodded, Yugito face palmed, and Darui just groaned. He was still in a major amount of pain.

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Next was Shikimaru vs. Misumi, one of Kabutoʼs team mates. It was over extremely quickly as the Nara simply caught Misumi in a shadow when the boy tried to use his technique, one that allowed the user powers similar to Mr. Fantastic, to crush him. He then proceeded to grasp a kunai and slit the boy's throat. You see, despite the fact that the Kagemane jutsu not only traps an enemy but has them mimic their captor's actions, Misumiʼs limbs were so out of proportion at that point that Shikimaru didn't have to worry about the mimic grabbing a kunai or hurting him. The action was kinda cold for Shikimaru to do, but the entire Kabuto team had seemed extremely off to all of the kitsune and kitsune were, after all, known for their ability to sense malicious intent. It would be best to just eliminate him now.

"Winner," Hayate coughed out, "Shikimaru of the Leaf."

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"Wow," commented Naruto.

His mates already knew what was on his mind - one of the things that just made them love him more. He was, although happy that such a suspicious figure was eliminated, concerned for Shikimaru. The boy was, although sitting in his normal position, shaking very slightly while Asuma talked with him. It seemed like it may have been his very first kill and, as it felt so unnecessary, probably hurt the boy even more than a normal life and death situation kill may have. Misumi was even a Leaf nin, making it that much worse.

Natsuki and Naruko just snuggled a little tighter to Naruto as they saw his face become serious and concerned for the shadow-boy. They tried to take his focus off of the pineapple-head and Naruko, especially, helped calm him down. However, seeing the names on the board just riled him back up. If his Naru-chan facing a genin from Kumo wasn't enough of the country for him, then his next fight certainly would be. Although he couldn't tell why, he knew his enemy to be stronger than a genin should be. Not that he could judge, however, as he himself was at least mid to high chunin in his own opinion, even capable of defeating some jounin like Zabuza, though the man had gone easy on him due to not wanting to harm the Demon King. Regardless, he knew the next match would be fun.

Naruto of the Leaf vs. Omoi of the Cloud

**And that is where I stop for the night.**

**Yet again, I am begging. Reviews tell me what is right, wrong, liked, and disliked. I love knowing people care about the story enough to say something, even if the review is simply "good job" or any other two word combination.**

**Good night, beautiful and not so beautiful people of the interwebs.**


	13. An Unfortunate Ending

**This is not a chapter, but it is the story's ending. Please do not review.**

I started out on this website writing 18 Tails as my first fic. Back then I liked the plot I'd imagined, and I still do. But some parts of the writing are just embarrassing for me to read now. Still, I've tried other fics - my Naruto Avatar Crossover fic the most successful and my "A Wish for the End" fic my personal favorite - but none have been as successful. This story has more views, reviews, favs, and follows than any other story. That is one of the reasons I always told myself I'd come back and finish it one day. Only now do I realize that day will never come.

Instead of fixing a broken story, I'm going to rebuild it anew. 19 Tails will have the same general story but with some changes (especially to biju lore) and better overall writing. As some of the chapters (at least at the start) are going to be copy pasted with major changes in the worst sections and minor changes throughout, the first few chapters should come fairly quickly. If you're willing to go on this roller-coaster ride with me again, I hope to bring you a better experience this time through as we eventually reach the end of our story together.

If you're not willing to check out the new story, I can't blame you. It is hard to commit yourself to a story for 50 thousand words and then have an author simply say that it's over. I thank you for reading 18 Tails, though, and helping me start my hobby as a fanfic writer. You people have helped encourage me to do something fun and new by writing for this site and, even if I'd like to put the memory of 18 Tails behind me, I will not put the memory of your contributions to rest.

Regardless, I encourage you to read my work and the work of other, better, authors on this site and review all of our work to help us keep writing. With that I'll simply have to say good luck, good night, and thank you.


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